There's a lot of wino's along the last 2 miles of my commute to work, so I get my share of flats. To me flats are not a reason to avoid internal hubs. I carry a small allen wrench in my pannier to wind the shifter back and release the cable. It adds about 30 seconds to the entire tube change.

I do have to carry a wrench too though, since you cannot have a quick release with an internal hub.