I wouldn't say basic, on account of the complexity of all that supension and luggage-carrying gubbins (fast bikes tend to be lightweight, which tends to mean less stuff). I've always thought of it as more 'tank' than 'tractor'. It's undeniably good at what it does, though the design's starting to look a bit long in the tooth (it will, no doubt, eventually be regarded as a classic). All the really agricultural recumbents seem to use square tubing, anyway, and it's much better looking than that
Agreed about gearing, though you may reconsider after you've been touring on it. I spend most of my time in a 36T middle ring (11-34 cassette), unless I'm carrying stuff, in which case the granny becomes important. The big ring mostly gets used when I go somewhere flat - it's not usually worth the effort of shifting to it for a few seconds of descending on my normal rolling hills. In contrast, I've got the same size big ring on the Baron, and that gets loads of use.