Oh it definitely is. Having stuck an XTR on the back of my road bike I’m enjoying the silence and not mourning the couple of watts loss in efficiency (or the lack of front derailleur…)
Some of the roads down this way are questionable mind.
Ah, well if you fit 1x to a road bike then that's your own fault. I don't have chain slap issues on my 2x road bike, even with silly 11-42T cassettes. Certainly not enough to want to tighten my chain up, increase wear and decrease efficiency.
Why? It's not like chain slap is a thing on the road whereas speed generally is.