This. The Troll does not have the long chainstays of more road-focused touring bikes, but I have not had an issue getting my Ortleibs adjusted so that they are plenty far back. I have a grocery bag pannier with no adjustment option, and if it's too full, I will kick it, but even then I can usually adjust things to make it work.

Fenders. I've been using the SKS Velo 65s. They can be used with pieces that attach the fenders to the dropouts, but they are not required. Took some fiddling to get the rear fender attachment around my rack mounts so that I could run the fender without the optional mounting hardware, but now that it's done, the fenders don't interfere with tire removal.

I don't mind the dropouts. They were actually one of the selling points for me. I run an Alfine 8 hub, and horizontal dropouts mean that I don't need a chain tensioner. I do need the little Surly adapters, and the fit is not perfect, but it works and as long as I apply enough torque when I put the wheel back on, there's no extra fiddling. If not for the the gear hub, I would be looking at something with a thru-axle, so I could take advantage of that aspect of the dropouts, but that's an issue with lack of thru-axle gear hubs, not with the Surly dropouts.