A road bike handles like a sports car. A mtb handles like a lawnmower.
Until you get on dirt. Then the road bike handles like a banana slug having a seizure.
You've just discovered the horses for courses principle. Impressive.
Basically, though a mtb is functional on roads for moderate speed, a pure road bike is useless on dirt except for the hardest packed gravel.
Next up: Playing tennis on a bmx is really difficult.