I recently switched a bike over to 1x and chose the relatively affordable Deore M5100 1x11 offering rather than one of the 1x12, because the big cogs in the 11-51 Deore cassette are 51-45-39. That seems much more logical than the 50-42-36 of the SRAM NX 12 sp if you're using the low end a lot. The price you pay is big gaps in the middle where you might be spending most of your time. The SRAM logic is that you'll want to have close gaps to optimize cadence for most of your riding and then use the 50 (or 52 on more expensive groups) as a bail-out. The Deore spacing is good if you use the whole range of the cassette evenly.

As for the "doubling down on the 32T", that's mostly driven by the need to keep a high end in the 1x. They already had to redesign the freehubs to squeeze a 10t sprocket on, and even with that, 32/10 is still lower than the top end of an older 2x or 3x drive train which might top out at 38/11. For riders who don't need a high top end, 30T or 28T chainring makes good sense, and there's no reason not to switch down if you want more low end.