That's a very practical, thoughtful, and well composed post -- and while it's difficult to tell what sort of reception it will receive here; I agree with, and like what you're saying. This reminds me of 'Trail' and 'Dual Sport' bikes when I was learning to ride that really were the 'do everything' work horses of commuting and adventure that were easy and inexpensive to maintain and fun to ride.
Unfortunately I think you are right, and a lot of the newer generation ADV and ADV Touring bikes are disturbingly complex and fragile, as well as very costly to maintain, even more so if you ride them hard, or worse as is too often the case -- break through intended use. All of this lends to my sense that 'ADV' has become more of a marketing gimmick then any sort of serious design and engineering intention no less an exploration given to solving real problems.
By way of illustration: while how much power we really need to have fun is obviously subjective and subject to how a machine is going to be used; the new Dakar Rally bikes are limited to 450cc, have to haul rider and an enormous payload of fuel over incredibly rough terrain and deep sand at speeds in excess of 115 mph, in an extremely hot and dirty environment, and do that all day long, for many days... Surely displacement and power output surpassing compact and even some mid-size sports cars is overkill that could be given some consideration in trade for economy and weight, or at least moving the weight LOWER on the machine...
The low maintenance and simplicity the Buell XB12X offered with it's air-cooled engine, belt drive, impressive economy and self-adjusting valve train raised a lot of eye brows and made a very appealing approach to this genre that was well received and is again being pursued by the likes of Carducci
But this is another set of compromises in heavy, top heavy, and narrower focus that will only appeal to a limited audience with in the ADV market.
The important distinction I feel is often missed is that a bike that's engineered to take a lot of abuse that includes truly rough terrain, a dirty environment, deep water fording capability, that offers good handling characteristics under these conditions and some maintenance autonomy is usually well behaved on the road, can as needed do a decent job keeping up with similar power:weight street machines on their home turf (pavement), as well offer more stable forgiving geometry and handling that is often more important to the long haul and adventure prone Rider then how fast the bike drops into a corner.
The converse however is virtually never the case: while a dedicated street machine certainly can be ridden off-road, or even on rough pavement; a little sand, water, or wet leaves can easily upset the all-in road machine with very unforgiving outcomes, or more typically catastrophic results -- and this is exactly what we see with most heavy ADV Touring machines.
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