My gravel bike is my go anywhere bike. It's slower than my road bike and less capable on the trails than a MTB. Yet I can ride my gravel bike from my front door and ride straight up the mountains and back. At least here in LA that's how we ride them. In fact amongst my riding buddies, we constantly switch back-n-forth, road/off-road. If anything, I consider gravel bikes more of our durable crash bikes, because at one point you will fall or wipe out. If you don't ride your gravel bike like that, you might as well stick with a road bike and be a trailer queen.