Originally Posted by
Cypress
Throwing a person that is strictly a road racer into gravel racing would result in a lot of missing skin and DNF's (at least, here in Oregon). I get what you're saying with the multiple bike types, but all of those other types you listed all reside on pavement. Things change when the surface gets loose, in my experience.
I bought a "gravel" bike because so many paved roads into the Cascades stop being paved. It's mostly hard packed dirt here, not actual gravel. You can ride it on 23s but much slower due to control. On 28/32s, I can ride it basically like any other road. And that opened up a lot more route options for me. We have some very scenic paved roads and highways, but we have a lot of very scenic dirt roads. I like covering a lot of ground, riding fast, and I'm not making my own path through trees and boulders, I'm riding on a road.