He effectively had to limp his bike home because he was stuck in the gear he had riding uphill. Took him half a day or so rather than an hour.

I’m certainly not a Luddite but this doesn’t seem to be a worthwhile trade off for me.

This would be like someone running out of fuel in a car. A known limitation which is completely avoidable.

I have a Garmin Forerunner 735XT watch and it needs charging every 15 days, which is better than any "true" smartwatch out there. At some point in the distant-but-not-so-much future the battery will flat out die and there will be no replacement part. The experience from my mechanical watch is entirely different: it keeps on ticking as I move around, and the thing will probably end up surviving me.

Going from zero to non-zero - whatever the value of non-zero is - is non-negligible mental weight. Zero is a freeing experience.

I really, really like it. I know I paid way too much for that bike but it is amazing and I can really feel the difference in a way I never could before.

I have seen some randonneuring bikes with a dynamo with USB charging for topping up the bike computer and the like. Commuting and utility bikes tend to just use the dynamo for lights.

I’m honestly surprised that there’s no super-low-power hub dynamo for this segment, but if it’s all people using bicycles for planned trips, they can take charging into account when planning trips.

Sram is fully wireless, and has batteries on each component.

Both systems have their set of pros: less batteries and central charging vs less installation effort due to no cables.

That being said, it's really easy to avoid the battery getting that low. It lasts months under normal conditions. And your head unit will tell you when the battery gets low. Except Hammerhead units won't get that warning anymore? #thanksshimano.