I own 3 bikes with wide range triple setups, and I use friction shifting on the front for all of them. It simply works better. I really like the Dura Ace 9-speed downtube shifters, which uses friction in front and 9 speed index shifting in the rear.

Plus, with friction shifting in front, a huge range of excellent older cranksets that can now be sourced quite cheaply will work just fine. I typically run tripleized 9-speed generation Campy cranks (either Record or Chorus), which look vastly better than the more modern Shimano cranks, and can easily be gotten for well under $100 including the tripleizer rings+bolts, on drivetrains that are otherwise all Japanese, and the setup works great.