Bikepacking - a viable alternative to racks & panniers

About a month late, but I did my first solo bikepacking trip last month - Geneva to London in 6 days, with a few consecutive 200k+ days (practicing for the North Cape 4000 in July). I’ve done touring trips with friends, and training-camp style things in the Alps before, but this was the first time combining the two and doing it solo.

First impressions are good - I’ve had 3-4 months of gradually building up distances and conditioning myself for longer distances, so my legs weren’t falling to pieces after it all. Knees were another matter - pain on inside top corner of kneecap at the beginning of each day, which gradually faded away after the first hour or two. Anyone had this before? Should I be worried??

Gear-wise, the bike did really well, no major mechanicals and very few minor ones. A dry chain was my biggest issue, I’ll definitely be taking a small bottle of lube next time. Aero bars felt like they were at the right height, but I need to swap to S-bend extensions for ski-bend ones instead. I’m looking at the Profile Design Legacy II bars as an option, any others I should be looking at?

I wild camped one night, campsite another, then hostels for the rest of it. The bivvy bag + sleeping bag + puffa jacket was manageable down to 8 degrees but wouldn't want to go much colder. Here’s a pic of the bike loaded up (Alpkit framebag, saddlebag and top tube pod, Apidura bar bag):

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