People are packing a lot less on the road these days, and famous expedition tourers from a decade-plus ago who remained active, like the Pikes or Pete Gostelow, completely overhauled their packing approach. It comes down to basically three things:

1) The bikepacking revolution. Once some cyclists started using only frame bags and had no racks or panniers, they obviously could only bring along what would fit in that limited space. Even when panniers are (sometimes) coming back in fashion, bikepackers might choose micro panniers like Revelate Design’s Nano Panniers or use the Ortlieb Gravel-Pack instead of the old-school Ortlieb Back Rollers.

2) No more laptops. People who want to blog on tour or keep in touch with back home, just use their phone for that.

3) The development of ultralight gear. From water filters to cooksets, the popular high-end outdoor equipment for bicycle travel not only weighs less these days, it also takes up less space.

What do you pack batteries for? My Garmin GPS is my only remaining item that takes traditional batteries.

As for tea, I just buy 100 g of tea and carry along a tea ball; I used to take metal tea balls, but kept accidentally leaving them behind after hanging them to dry. I just got a very colourful silicone tea filter that hopefully will always catch my eye.

Given the inherent shortcomings of non forged hub shells it makes sense to minimise damage around the spoke holes. This is the rational behind Rohloff's recommendations regarding spoke diameter and elbow length. A 1X heads out build also has advantages in this respect, SJS obviously think so and are prepared to back their judgement by honouring any  warranty claims. I guess the jury is still out on this.

PH has pointed out the better spoke line at the hub of inbound spokes but this will only be the case if the spokes are chosen carefully. If the spoke doesn't easily take a straight line from the elbow to the rim its likely that any advantage of less damage to the hub flange might be at the expense of increased spoke breakage at the elbow.  A trial fitting of a spoke to the hub should confirm whether spokes are suitable. With regard to spoke line at the flange, it occurs to me that another advantage of having all spokes inbound is that it removes the process of  adjusting the spoke line of outbound spokes. This can be quite brutal and risks damaging the hub flange, depending on the method chosen.

I haven't used those, or the Marathon XR they replaced.  They have a huge reputation for longevity, but I've always wondered at what cost.  Is it just weight?  Or have they sacrificed anything else in order to be so hard wearing?

Apart from the weight, which to me, excluding lightweight tyres like the Supreme, doesn't seem particularly high, the cost is rolling resistance on tarmac. At least in the Marathon Mondial EVO version that I know.

As with some other long-lasting tyres there might also be a penalty in wet grip, but I have not noticed any problems with that and there is a lot of rain in winter here in South Brittany. Perhaps I am just more cautious than riders who have problems with tyre grip.

In the 2024 downloadable catalogue Schwalbe rate the characteristics of Marathon Plus (MP) and Mondial Evo version (M), both in the 50x559 size, as follows, for all the figures (except weight!), high is better:

Puncture resistance          MP = 7, M = 6
Rolling resistance              MP = 3.5, M = 4
Road grip                          MP = 4, M = 5
Off road grip                     MP = 2.5, M = 4
Durability                          MP = 6, M = 6
Weight                             MP = 1100g, M = 740g

The results are a bit different according to the independant bicyclerollingresistance.com site. For the Marathon Mondial EVO version they tested (37-622 Evo), puncture resistance is a bit less than Marathon Plus in the same size (108 as compared to 129), rolling resistance slightly higher (26.7 as compared to 25.5), weight much less (570g as compared to 900).

Subjectively, I reckon the Marathon Mondial EVO in the 55-559 size I have used most rolls slightly better than the 50-559 Marathon Plus that I have also used fairly extensively. But this might be psychological due to the better acceleration with a significantly lighter tyre. They also seem more comfortable, but that might be due to me using the 55 mm width rather than 50 mm, although due to the thickness of the puncture protection layer there is less air (cushioning) in a Marathon Plus even in the same size.

Marathon Plus always feel a bit "dead" to me, although this feels less pronounced in a wide 50x559 size. I had Marathon Plus 28x622 on a pair of visitor bikes and in that size the tyres felt really awful.

IMO Marathon Mondial scores over Marathon Plus for a mix of tarmac and moderate off-road use, while remaining not as good as a dedicated MTB tyre for 100% off-road use.

For use predominantly on tarmac, I prefer a lightweight tyre like the discontinued Marathon Supreme (there are similar tyres still available in 26" in the Continental range).

If puncture protection is the absolute priority, in the 26" size on tarmac I reckon Marathon Plus is the way to go, at the expensive of mediocre rolling resistance and more weight than something like the Supreme or even the ordinary Marathon.

 

...
I think Peter White became the US distributer quite recently, it was previously Cycle Monkey. 
Even out of warranty, it still might be an option, there's a post on here somewhere about someone getting it done in the UK by SJS, it seemed a reasonable price (Apologies for the vagueness, but I'm sure you can find the thread)

I have often seen on this forum where a UK buyer of a complete bike from SJS was often treated well where the warranty had already expired and where foreign shipping was not involved, so that does not surprise me.

Quite a few years ago I knew someone here in USA who used to be a Rohloff employee, his job was to be the Rohloff representative for USA and at that time Rohloff did not have a sole distributor in USA.  I met him after he left Rohloff, he was managing a small bike shop in my community.  Since then, he has moved on to a different shop that I never have a reason to go to.

If now Rohloff has a single distributor in USA, that surprises me a bit.  But I would not be too surprised, a number of small European companies have done that over the years.  Peter White does that for B&M and possibly some of the other German light companies.  If I buy a B&M light here in USA, it passed through Peter White's hands.