If you're worried about getting all your gear into two, front panniers, I think compression will be very helpful. For my part, getting gear into a limited amount of space is more important than matching some unspecified weight goal. I know there are people who will go lighter, but my feeling is that unless you're filling them with sand, 25 liters worth of camping gear will be a reasonable weight.

For my part, I used to compress my tent (a hammock) and my insulation all into one compression sack which then went into one, waterproof pannier. Because my hammock goes underneath a separate tarp, it is never more than damp. The tarp would not go into the pannier. That way it could be put up before I even opened the tent pannier, keeping everything dry. Eventually I got a little more lightweight gear, and found I could essentially just feed the hammock, with quilts, into the pannier and close it up without a compression sack. Now I cram the hammock and a couple of bedding items into a handlebar roll, and anything extra, like quilts that didn't fit, go into a compression sack in the fork. The tarp, as always, sits somewhere outside, so I can put it up before getting out the hammock tent.

If you have an otherwise empty rear rack, then I could see where just throwing the whole tent there could be helpful, but if you don't, I can also see why you might want to stuff it in a pannier and tie the poles up somewhere out of the way, like along the top tube.