I get being critical of the hype, biking always has had hype, and I figure touring stuff tends to follow that balance of functionality vs cost/value thing, hence the deore standard of stuff that works great, good price, lasts a long time and can be replaced in any city in the world.
BUT I'm open to new stuff.
my first bike with outboard bottom bracket , hollow tech 2 , has shown me that even with me stripping the used bike I bought for my Latin American trips and reinstalling the bb myself, it has worked flawlessly for three trips, plus other riding, and still spins wonderfully smoothly and with less friction than my other bikes, all square taper. And this bb must have 8000kms on it.
Same with disc brakes, like we've discussed on other threads Chris, I'm fine using rim brakes, but am impressed with mechanical discs and how long pads last for me.
but I'm certainly not buying into 1x stuff, not for touring. Off road maybe but I don't do enough of it seriously.