I used to work for a company with another subsidiary that made an internal gear 12, even heavier, and from what I read, less reliable than the Rohloff. I wouldn't want a Rohloff for my normal uses, but would love to have one just for it's Swissness, in the same way I love complex mechanical chronographs. But I don't camp, sail, ski, etc. with the expensive chrono. Rohloffs are similarly expensive.

I think even heavier or at least equally heavy was the NuVinci hub, brilliantly simple, but I had doubts about durability from a hub that relied on friction between hard steel elements immersed in oil, the same doubts I have about automotive CVTs.