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Howard, I disagree with your estimate of maintenance. Chains last longer because the run is simpler and puts a great deal less stress on them. They are also thicker. You also never need to open (old) Sturmey hubs up. The 4 speed dyno hub on my Raleigh has worked perfectly for the last 60 years. A drop or two of oil is all they ever need. It's had the same chain and sprocket since 1974 too, but of course it lives in an oil bath chain case and never gets dirty.
The nicest hub I rode was the modern Sturmey 3 speed on my Raleigh Chopper. All the problems of the AW3 fixed.
Mind you I had one bike with a Nexus 7 and I grew to hate it.
Do Genesis still do the Day One Alfine 11? I lusted after one of those for a while.
bq
The only maintenance headache IGHs save you from is cleaning the cassette - and jockey wheels should you have a frame that deals with chain tension. But then you just exchange one headache for another.
You still need to maintain the chain, adjust the gears, even periodically open the thing up and deal with its internals.
On paper they sound great, and they are good, but the benefits aren't so clear cut when in the real world, which makes them a hard sell.