Originally Posted by
DrIsotope
Ummm... what? You are aware of how gears work, yes? A 42T chainring with an 11-36 cassette gets lower than most anything you will see on a 2X road/gravel bike. To get lower, you'd need a triple or an MTB crankset. I run a 44T with an 11-42 cassette and climb 400k feet a year. The shortcoming in the 1X comes at the bottom of the cassette, not at the top. And that limitation is only on the superhumans that populate BF-- as 44/11 @ 90rpm is 29mph-- but plenty for mere mortals.
I'm not saying that 1x can't work for bikepacking because it definitely can, but your 2x claim is just wrong. 42/36 is about the same as probably the most common low gear on a road bike - 34/28. However, plenty of 48/32 and 46/30 cranksets are coming on these bikes paired with 11-32, 11-34, or 11-36 cassette. To match the lowest of these gears you would need a 30 tooth chainring, and I think even a 'mortal' rider would find 30/11 too low as a top gear.
A 10-42 (or 44 with third party replacement cog) paired with a chain ring somewhere in the 36-42 range is a much better option.