Yes, an odd choice, especially given the weakness of the hub, which I have written about before. I'm not exceptionally strong, or heavy, or careless, and I haven't geared it lower than 45 front / 36 rear, and still it broke. Since the 36t cassette is made by Sunrace themselves and fits only this hub, Sunrace can't claim they don't support it. I've broken two of these Sunrace hub bodies before I gave up. I can't believe this is just bad luck. So has R&M simply not tested it well? Sunrace is in Taiwan afaik and their local market has lots of small and light riders. Not so for R&M in Germany.

With gearing I care mainly about gearing range, and then adjust chainweel size to get the ratio I need. The 1x10 Touring model has 356% range, too low for me. Hence the upgrade to 11s 9-36 and 400% range, but then the hub broke. I could make an XD wheel and use a 10-42 cassette for 420% range, but then the chainline / chainstay clearance problems get even worse. I could go for a 2x crankset, but that has it's own problems. So I went for the Alfine 11 with 409% range. Enough range for me for this bike, no chainline problems, and half the cost of a Rohloff. R&M should offer this option. The Nexus 8 is only 306%, less than an 11-34 cassette.

The Sturmey Archer CS-RF3 is very interesting and was high on my list. It officially supports cassettes up to 9s 11-34 , which gives it 548% range! More than the Rohloff at 526%. When in 2nd gear of the hub, which you can be most of the time, it has the same efficiency as a pure derailer setup. This and the SRAM DualDrive seem to be good options for small wheel bikes. For larger wheel bikes the 11s and 12s options are now cheap enough and have enough range that I would prefer them in most cases.