Don't forget, having two (or more) chainrings does allow you to have two (or more) optimum (or nearly optimum) chainlines. On my bike, with just a six speed, I tend to use all 6 gears in the 40T chainring, but the chainline is about optimum inbetween 4th/5th. Which is nice, as when I'm on flat ground (rare around here) that is right around where I would be. The 52T chainring, while I haven't looked, is probably optimum around 6th, so when I'm cranking on it for maximum speed, (hopefully) pretty efficent. A triple might be nice, as again I might have better chainlines for those "crank up the hills" rides.

With just a single chainring, odds are, the chainline will be perfect somewhere in the middle of the cassette, which is hopefully where you tend to cruise at.

Someday, I'd like to try out one of the newer internal hubs. I think I'd love to, this winter, other than the whole money bit. I'm not sure about total range, though: my cheapo bike runs 36-108 gear inches currently, and I find that I have used all of those gear inches and wished for more (well, it's a bit crazy on the top end, but you only live once). I'm sure the expensive hubs do have wide ranges, perhaps at the expense of closeness; which then illustrates a bit of how you are stuck with whatever gear ratios they pick for you. With cassettes and chainrings, you do have some easier options to play with gearing.

My biggest grief would be the "normal" trend for these hubs seems to be grip shifts, which I hate--and would have no idea how those would work out on a road bike with drops anyhow. Maybe if they could get that to work with a brifter, then it'd be something I'd really drool over.