hi again imi, I forget, what sort of shifters do you have on your bike?
Front friction shifters help a bit with bigger front chainring differences because its really easy to finesse a front shift, easy to do if one has any sort of mechanical sympathy and understanding or visualization of a front chainring shift.
STI type shifters just do an automatic "klunk" shift and you can't control the speed at which the shifter moves the front derailleur--but my bike with a road triple that I changed the granny to a 50/39/26 has sti shifters, and with proper limit screw adjustment plus that chain catcher thingee, shifting to the 26t has been 99% accurate.
Of course, the specific fd I have plays a part, and the chain catcher is very likely a factor in helping keep the chain in place.

also, think of all the road bikes that have 50/34 cranksets, so 16t, 14t, whatever tooth differences can easily be managed in real life riding, it just really helps if your fd is adjusted properly limit screw wise and you learn what shifting style can help things, or I guess I should say, to avoid the pretty small number of situations that can make the shift harder (shifting up front while shifting at the back or whatever)