The fine steps and wide range on an Alfine 11 or Rohloff 14 are to get by with ***ONLY*** an IGH with one cog. The 3-speed IGH was originally designed to get by with only the IGH, so wide range was best (though still not wide enough for serious hills). With a cassette, you don't need finer steps within the IGH, the IGH just gives you low, middle, and high ranges. If you had more steps in the IGH, it would just give you more duplicate gears that you are getting with the cassette.

By the way, I have a folder, originally 1x7 gearing, needed lower gears for climbing. I wanted to put a triple crank in front, but the fat seat tube would not provide enough clearance at front derailleur for the cage to go in far enough on the granny gear, and a wider BB cartridge would space the high ring too far out for good chainline. So instead of mounting a 52/42/30, I mounted a 50/34 double with hollow spindle and external bearings, almost as much range and a far superior crank and bearing system in many ways. Even so, I still also had to grind off part of the excessively large inboard lip on the FD cage near the seat tube. I wanted to avoid the DualDrive due to the more complex maintenance. I might someday go to an ALL internal gear system with belt drive (and disc brakes) for winter wet weather as the grit trashes the external drivetrain and rim brakes.