To zoom or not to zoom........

As I don't like dragging a load of prime lenses around with me so I pick one for the day and good luck but inevitably the wrong focal length is always on the camera,  and as I also don't like changing lenses in the field, zooms appear to be the best solution, but, zooms while being less expensive than a bunch of primes do not have the quality of prime lenses, but zooms are mostly heavy and big and not at all discrete.

Has anybody satisfactorily solved the above eternal triangle.

And NO, I am not dragging multiple bodies around, one is heavy enough.

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CD