This has been my experience too. I've ridden 3 speeds for well over a decade, mostly commuting and getting around town. The "wide" range hub has an overall range of about 1.8, and the gears are spaced further apart than on the typical modern road bike cassette. So, if the purpose of gearing is to match the peak of your power range to the conditions (wind, incline, acceleration, etc.), the match is never optimal with a 3-speed but it can be OK.

This is probably less important if you ride alone than if you're matching your speed to other riders in the peloton.

In my case it means that I sometimes stand up and honk, to climb a hill, and I can top out my cadence going down, whereupon I just coast. In fact, I generally coast down hills. I don't use 3rd extensively, and if my rides involved more hills, I'd install a bigger cog in back, or maybe consider a 5 speed if things got extreme.

Before I converted my second bike to 3 speed, I experimented with choosing 3 gears and sticking to them while going out on longer rides. It does take some getting used to if you instinctively switch to the optimal gear while riding a derailleur bike.