I prefer to pedal at a slow cadence on long shallow downhills instead of coast. Thus I like my 52/42/24 front and 11/32 8 speed rear. I don't cross chain so the 24/11 and 24/12 gears don't get used, those are the only gears where the deraileur does not take up the slack. I am building up another bike now and I will use these same gears on that bike too. The 24t granny is great for steep uphills, but shifting from the 24 to 42 ring on the front is not a smooth shift so I only use the 24t ring when I need it.

Yeah, that's the thing with those big differences in number of teeth on chainrings, I've found that I have to be careful when changing and not have a lot of pressure on the pedals. Sucks to get taken by surprise and try to shift into the granny when you're already grinding. The chain doesn't really like to drop onto the granny chainring nice and smooth when there's a big gap.