In Which I Attempt to Build a Sensible Road Bike + other bike content

So recently (since around the beginning of this year) I have mostly been enjoying two things: cycling long distances, and cycling up hills.
(see diagram 1)

(diagram 1)

When I built my current road bike, however, I just wanted to ride fast around the city (n.b. I am not fast) and it doesn't quite work with my current priorities, either functionally or more importantly ideologically.
I am also not able to htfu enough to handle the cycling up hills bit fixed, or at least not the ones I want to ride up.

So I need a more sensible road bike. There are three things I want:

1. A decent low gear for long hard climbs (currently I have a stupid 1x setup but I am old and weak and don't want to do long stretches of double digit grades on a hardman gear)
   
2. A better way of carrying luggage, preferably a small front rack (in particular I need to carry a bike bag on long rides to get on trains; I already have a suitable rack and could also use it for shopping, light fishing, carrying cool stuff I found, etc.)
   
3. Clearance for 28mm tires, even 32mm if possible tho this is unlikely (almost everywhere I want to ride is paved, but the most interesting back roads can be in very poor condition and often have random mountain debris on them; there is something of a consesus here that (assuming tubeless and low-ish pressure) this is the sweet spot for fast-on-good-roads + won't-die-or-pinch-flat-on-shit-roads)
   
   

I could solve 1. and 2. on my current bike by fitting a smaller chainring and/or bigger cassette and getting a big saddle bag but... I don't want to do either of those things.
There are modern frames that would definitely work but a) they are all boring and b) I am permanently broke af, so that's not going to happen.
Why not get a gravel bike, or if b) is an issue an old randonneur or touring frame? Because I don't want any of those bikes. I want a proper road bike, and also to have my cake and eat it.

My initial plan was to start by putting drops back on this, switching the rack for the Nitto M-18 I have, and seeing if I could squeeze 32mm tires in (it clears 28mm with no problem and the fork at least will definitely take 32mm).

Easy, and not thread worthy.
Unfortunately shortly after coming up with this plan I crashed the above bike (it was actually mostly not my fault).

At first I thought the frame was OK, but after careful observation of the facts and some thorough calculations I determined that I definitely bent it.
(And also that conversely one of my fingers no longer bends all the way.)

It's not just the fork, the top tube and down tube are kinked.
In fact the fork seems fine but I don't see how this could be possible.

Good bye soldier/鋼の戦士よ

Anyway this month I for some reason got a raise, and it will be back dated till April, so that gives me enough cash to buy a similar steel frame and basically come out even (/minus one finger).

The remaining problem is that >56 frames are not all that common in Japan and I don't want to buy from overseas and have to wait, so there is a high chance of impulse buying something that does not fit my brief.
The couple of frames I'm considering rn will definitely not clear 28mm tires, for example.
Also I already nearly bought a lo pro so lol🤷

Unless I have a serious case of being sensible I think I'm going to buy a frame next week. In the meantime I might post something about my other road bike and the ride that inspired this.
To be continued dot dot dot