Kyle, Ho, John, and Axel covered pretty much every hard trail from Colorado to California (including Holy Cross, Pritchett Canyon, Rubicon, and Dusy Ershim). And they did it in their daily drivers.
Have you done it when you debated the build mods with them? Have you done it since?
I am happy that my big-wide-knobby-tire, lock-everything wheeling years were mostly before I bought my Discovery.
33 x 10.5's and a 3" lift is not a Jeep with 40's that gets trailered everywhere and can't drive in a straight line. In fact, I think it drove better with the upgrades I had - RTE springs, castor corrected radius arms, trailing links, a-arm extension and GASP! SHOCK! Rancho adjustable shocks instead of OME"s or Bilsteins. The longer and wider footprint really felt stable and drove like a dream on the highway.
I never debated that they were wrong for their choices, I only debated that I liked my truck and my choices and that it worked for me. I don't like to wheel alone, the guys I went with all had 33's and more clearance. When I modded my truck I matched their general setups in terms of tires sizes and lifts to expand the trails I could access and complete. My Rover was my daily driver back then. I did many things midwest and east in my my Rover since I live out this way, and I drove to all of those and back. So, there was nothing at all limiting about my truck and my setup. A west coast trip was not in the cards for me back then - I couldn't get away that long.
Actually, come to think of it, I did do 32x9.5 tires when I first lifted the truck for the whole tall and skinny thing. I didn't like it and upgraded to the 33x10.5's. I don't remember the details of what pushed me over the edge for the upgrade.
I did go to Moab with my current Rover when it had 31's. I did Hell's Gate and it did fine and some other place that I had to take almost every bypass - not very fun. I did trailer it there, though. Not because of the 31's, but because I didn't want to trust a 20+ year old Disco to make it there and back.