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@the_moulinette
Surley's blurb states: "With a 17/19t Dingle on the back, pick two chainrings that are 2 teeth apart, like a 44t and a 42t. When you change from the outer (44:17t) gear combo to the inner (42:19t), you’ll have a much better off-road gear and your wheel position will not change. This maintains effective chainstay length so you won’t have to worry about having too much or too little chain length to accommodate the gear change."
This system allows you to change, relatively quickly, between two significantly different gears whilst maintaining an efficient chainline and, most critically, still riding fixed. That's not a call for a derailleur.
How regularly do you change your gearing whilst on a ride?
If you don't want to run a double chainset, I would have thought that a flip-flop with the required alternative sprocket on would be a better (and cheaper) option. The Dingle makes gear changing a little quicker than flipping your wheel round, but at the expense of chainline efficiency and the preferred 1/8" chain.
I am considering purchasing a Dingle to run with a double chainset in order to ride the Fred Whitton next May, but only because this ride comprises such extremes of gradient and, because I regularly ride big hills, I use two (yes TWO) brakes. The double chainset/Dingle combo means I won't have to adjust my rear brake each time I swap gear and the gear change itself will be a bit quicker.
Then again, if a hill's too steep to get up in my usual gear, it might be quicker to get off and run!