It does seem that the Triumph Tiger 955i is a Marmite bike (i.e. Love it or hate it). Me I love mine.

It seems to work every where I want it to:
Long distance,
Commuting,
Casmping trips,
2 Up.

I'm 5'9" and I rekon there isn't much room for any one much shorter than me to be able to comfortably touch the ground. But before lowering a bike I would really check that you need to I remember when I first bought my MT 350 I thought I would have to lower it as I wasn't used to a tall bike (My previous bikes had been a Suzuki 125 Marauder and a Kwaker W650), I soon got used to the height.

I don't really take mine off road or on unsurfaced roads as I have an HD MT 350 and a Honda XR250 for that, altough have ridden it round festival sites and other such places and it handled well.