ya, the real working powerband of the bike I raced was about 2k rpm, and I had had a 175cc two stroke enduro, so just very used to moving through 6 spd gearboxes constantly.
Oh, and on the prod bike racing , I had changed the front sprocket to a slightly smaller one, so even faster running through gears.
To me its still fun, and equates to a tight cassette that is fun to ride with because you can keep in the right cadence, and I just find it fun "snick snicking" gear changes at exactly the right time, on whatever vehicle I'm driving or riding, motorized or not.
but yes, as for standing, to be completely realistic, when riding loaded its simply something that I rarely rarely do, and its not an age thing, but a better use of energy thing isnt it? Sure, there are times that we have no choice, and there have been the odd time in my latin american trips where Ive found myself completely in the red, standing , yet still about to bounce my heart valves off a piston so to speak--on my 16.7 gear inch bike....
but this is super rare, so all that blah blah to say that bar ends for touring are still a perfectly good setup