Actually to be contrarian for a moment, even if torque kills trannies it also kills axles.
Look at a picture of a 2.29 ring/pinion then look at the tiny spindly little 4.56 ring/pinion... and don't tell me the latter is as strong as the former. It seems you either add weight in the axle or in the transmission, maybe not as much necessarily but it's still not completely simple.
Still with all other things being equal, assuming the trans isn't overloaded, am I wrong in assuming a 1:1 straight through ratio is the ideal? I guess what i'm really wondering is if anyone knows of an efficiency to compare the loss through a 0.50:1 overdrive vs straight through for instance. Just for curiosity's sake to sooth my instincts telling me it's wrong.
Or because i'm curious if it's even worth engineering for for an economy project. (numerically low axles and lesser OD ratios)