I went triple when I quit racing and ordered my Mooney non-racing bike. My racing gears plus a 28 tooth inner ring. For the next few years, freewheels went from 5 to 7 and I simply added the new cogs as the next lower. Then I aged some more and I dropped the inner, eventually down to 24. Followed this pattern on my other geared bikes too. When I got my custom 16 years ago, I went 9-speed with as small as 12 teeth. I aged and dropped the outer and middle rings to 50-38. (Campy cassette so I've never had bigger than 28 teeth. I go 28, 25 or 23 depending on my conditioning and the hills planned.) My two 7-speed bikes have 13-26 FWs and 52-42-30 (Campy on an old racing bike and 52-42-24 on a Raleigh Competition. (I need to get smaller rings.) The race bike is just that. I suck it up and grunt.
Not all that different from ridelikeaturtle's friend's bike. (I ride Portland so having both rather large and low gears is good. And I still hate bigger than 2 tooth gaps. Still love the one tooth gaps.)