A very biased article by WolfTooth. Yes 1X is simpler with no front shifter and front derailer, but it's not like front derailers wear out, I've got a Suntour triple from 1991 that is still functioning mostly as it's such a simple piece of equipment there's little to go wrong. Yes, 1X saves a bit of weight, so does taking a dump before you ride. 1X is easy as it's only the rear shift, the 11 and 12 speed systems give you the overall range of a tripe, but with only 12 gears you miss on a lot of mid-range gears that can be useful to keep up your cadence. My 9 spd. triple give me 14 different gears where as my 1X 12 sp. only gives me 12. And it's not like front shifting suddenly started to suck and they needed to move to eliminate the front derailer. The Shimano Di2 electronic front shifting is pretty much perfect and defies the argument of 1X being easy to use. There are advantages in frame design to eliminating the front derailer, the entire area around the bottom bracket is different, front suspension is easier to facilitate without dealing with front derailer movement, tires can be bigger with no issues of the tire getting hit by the derailer and in many cases these are better arguments. 1X does work really well on mt. bikes, especially where you are in terrain with a lot of fast up and downs where there's no need to think about the front shift and the rear shift. Is why I [prefer 1X on a mt. bikem but not on a gravel or road bike