Well put Rolla. And totally agree.

A big part of why the early MTB's went with 26" is to avoid toe strikes against the front tire when turning on the trails. Some of the road bikes with 700C I've had did in fact cause a toe strike when maneuvering at very low speeds and bigger bar angles. Normally they simply don't ride that slowly so it's sort of a non issue. And I would imagine that on occasion a gravel and casual trail bike might well have the same low speed and tight maneuvering to deal with and might well be better off with the smaller overall tread diameter.

Makes me wonder how well the 29'er MTBs are for this. I can't say I've even tried a test ride on one up to this point.