Unless someone here has SRAM on a road bike, there just wont be much experience in this forum with SRAM road components since SRAM doesn’t in any way support touring thru its products.

1- 34/32 is something I wouldn’t want to use to get up hills with a packed bike. If its whatcha got though- cool. There is what cant I do if needed and what I want to do if given the choice. If needed, sure I could climb hills in that setup. If given the choice, no I wouldn’t climb hills in that setup.

2- Look up your component’s limitations. How much chain wrap can the drivetrain handle? Once you know that, you can figure out how large a cassette you can slap on the back wheel. Get a wolftooth roadlink if needed to clear the largest cog or two of that bigger cassette.
I use a wolftooth on my gravel bike. Its 105 11sp shifting with an 11-36 cassette and a 46/34 crank setup. The reason my rear derailleur can handle this setup is because it has the wolftooth to help it clear the largest couple cogs and also because the total chain wrap is within the overall limit due to the 12t spacing of my chainrings. If it were 16t like normal compact cranks, then that may be too much chain for the midcage 105 road derailleur to handle.

3- Get a fuji touring and sell it afterwards. If you can get $350-400 for it on craigslist, then you will effectively only spend $200. That could be close to(or cheaper than) what a wide range cassette, wolftooth, and subcompact crank would cost.