Road Cycling“It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.” -- Ernest Hemingway
Sounds like you need an 11-speed 12-28 cassette, which is my holy grail, so much that I bought two.
And that’s why I have the 12-29 Miche. I can climb most things with the 26T on it, and have the 29T just in case.
My Cannondale has the 11-28, but mated to a 48x32 gravel oriented crank (A Praxis Zayante). Technically, this gives me an ever so slightly wider spread than the 12-29 mated to the 50x34.
The 11-34 is scheduled to go on a commuter build. I figure the awful ratios and pig iron weight won’t feel like as much of a nuisance when I’m cruising at 12mph with a backpack.