Yep the ten tooth thing is super overblown. That cog is for down hill any watts given up are gravity assisted watts. If you are in that cog on flat ground buy bigger front rings.
Hell I run a e thirteen 9 46 on my gravel rig but that 9 tooth is for down hill only.
An inferior design is an inferior design. And speak for yourself. I have a 52/36 and i routinely use the 11T at the back on the flat, once i'm going above 40kmh. And given i use the bike on steep hills too, i don't want to run 53/39. And i'm not going to swap cranks between flat and hilly days.
Sram's small cogs and small chainrings are mechanically an inferior design, plain and simple. Doesn't mean they dont work adequately for most. But it's a new design that's worse than what it replaced. aka, an inferior design.
Flat top chains suck too, zipp lost their edge so long ago that nobody's talking about them anymore, batteries that last a fraction of shimano's.
Sram engineers are the goats of poor engineering. They do however have very strong marketing.