I do mostly light touring trips and I never found a need for the bigger chainring of a triple. I was mostly on the middle and used the granny for steep sections.
I prefer tighter rear spacing and I also prefer two chainrings up front (front shifts always seem so disruptive compared to floating up and down the rear cogs). And I found myself doing a lot more front shifting when I tried a 50/34 compact. I now have 12-28 with 44/28 on one bike, and 11-27 with 42/26 on another, and they are just about perfect for me. I have converted ultegra triples into doubles for both of those bikes (CF chainguard on outer space).