I'm sort of doing both too. But our bath redo is at a stand still, so I just put these up temporarily. Please ignore the walls, which will come down when the project is restarted. First, the train rack which stores and provides a towel bar as well. It will have the blocking to support it placed behind the new walls. The towel ring as shown was the one we used before, the old one, and I might find a place to put it but who knows. And here is my favorite hook of all time, which I purchased from Lee Valley Tools. It can go behind a door and it folds up. It is also a very nautical design, since boats are always short on space. It makes a good mudroom rack where you can hang a hat on top, and then spread out the other hooks for your gloves and jackets. And then this one, on clearance at Pottery Barn and sold as a bathroom magazine rack, but it is a fantastic towel bar/rack too. Not bad on the price either, if it is still available. I'm using it now beside my sink in the bath undergoing redo.

We're in AZ, so everything dries within 24 hrs or less. We always had bars and folded the towel long-ways in half and then over the bar. It was always dry by the next morning in this doubled manner. When we redid the old bathroom, I opted for a bar again for myself (because I also have a washcloth) and a hook for DH because he's not a very neat folder. His towel was still always dry by the next morning. I could see the mold potential, but if you get one of the big hooks that holds the towel out a little from the wall, I don't see how it would differ from the depth of a bar from the wall. In our new house, we're currently sharing one bar on limited wall space and I fully plan to switch DH to a hook again when we remodel. We also didn't have a hand towel bar when we moved in, so I just put up a removable plastic hook for the meantime. It's worked out very well (as DH ALWAYS removed the towel from the bar and didn't put it back) and I plan to hang both bathrooms' hand towels on hooks permanently as well!

Your set-up, incl small size looks like ours. Be careful if you hang a bar or ring on the wall to the left of the sink. We were going to hang one there in the MB, but the towel would have hung over/ into the sink (we didn't want to hang it extra high). Here's what we did. It works for me (DH uses the other bathroom). Not the ideal location, I admit, but not too many options. Window on opposite wall, with a door that would cover most of the towel bar if we did hang it under the window.

I have a Simple Human under cabinet paper towel holder in the laundry room. If I didn't have under cabinet lights in the kitchen I probably would have used one there too. It fits both of your criteria ... well-designed and easy to use. Here is a link that might be useful: Simple Human paper towel holder