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I am waiting for gearboxes to become competitive with derailleurs. Would totally be up for getting rid of that fragile and expensive part.

>I am waiting for gearboxes to become competitive with derailleurs

You mean the internal gear hubs?

They've been competitive for over a hundred years[1].

I had a bike with an 8-speed SRAM[2], it worked fine (got stolen one day).

[1]https://www.sheldonbrown.com/internal-gears.html

[2]https://www.sheldonbrown.com/sram-g8.html

Not in the hub, bad for unsprung mass. In the bottom bracket like this

https://pinion.eu/en/

But has some tradeoffs that mean it isn't quite there yet.

I agree. I couldn't see it surviving many pretty routine - well, routine for me - crashes.

I actually thought they had the potential to keep more mud out than a conventional chain.

A conventional chain could be caked in mud, but it literally cleans itself - the contact points anyway. Also, if well-lubricated they're pretty good at keeping water and such out of the internals as well - or at least easy enough to clean up when you get home.