Agreed. Not only that, but all the whiz bang flavour of the day stuff doesn't make your tour better.
One can tour just fine on all sorts of stuff; I'm not tech-obsessed enough to pay huge premium to be an early adopter. OTOH much of the "whiz bang" stuff is basically proven technology. I doubt German companies would spend a fortune developing stuff like Pinion w/o making absolutely sure it would work well. Belt drive is used widely in motos & cars. I'd think that belt-drive would be esp ideal for touring--one can happily ride thru mud, sand, rain, salted roads etc w/o worrying about cleaning a gritty slow chain. Spare belt is pretty light to carry as insurance. Last winter I went for 5-mile bike ride on slushy salted streets, the salt removed all the lube.
Northern Europeans seem to be rather keen on IGH/belt, perhaps in part due to that it's not uncommon for that area to get snow in spring or fall. Derailleur wheels get gunky & slow too. Derailleurs are fairly easy to damage & now the designs can make it difficult to accurately lube all the pivot points. Seems logical that IGH/belt will be the future of mass-market bikes; casual riders don't have the skill/time/desire to fuss with dirty drive-train maintenance.