I am well happy with 32t and a 10 spd 11-36t cassette.
The E13 xc guide does the job fine enough for what I do on it. (along with making a nice fixing point for the rear gear outer) £40 over the likes of £110 if it does the job 98% of the time is good enough for me.
There’s no bash ring,just a chain protecting the ring. No shifter,mech and cables. Just a nice space on the left hand side of the bar for a dropper post lever when I get one.
1st gear is fine for Torridon (even with the extra weight of a rack,sleeping bag,mat,bivi and a fairly packed non biking rucksack)
The cassette wearing more evenly throughout all the sprockets is something I like the idea of too. The last few cassettes I removed from triple set-ups were in great condition on some sprockets,wasted on others.
O.K. a 32t ring and an 11t at the rear might see racers possibly lose some races due to spinning out but I don’t race so the benefits of 1×10 for everything, bar flying down a fast track where you need to be pushing a gear to do well in a race,is the way I will probably go in the future.