Great thread! This really shows one of the problems discussing the gravel segment - some riders are on flat farm roads almost as smooth as pavement, and others are literally mountain biking. This is a much broader range than other cycling segments. Often people don’t stop to clarify what they’re riding before saying broadly “no one needs lower than 1:1 gearing” or “I can’t believe how few riders use dropper posts” etc.
I just rode the famous Flume Trail in Tahoe on my gravel bike and it was great. Very mild trail from a technical standpoint, with a lot of hard packed gravel road to get there, so honestly it’s perfect on a gravel bike. 100% of other bikes were MTBs, probably 80% full squish downhillers (ie LLS trail/enduro/etc). One MTBer said ‘wow bold choice” about the gravel bike, lol. I guess a lot of MTBers just live for the 1% of the ride that’s technical and just suffer on the 99% that’s spin/grind; I much prefer to enjoy the 99% and suffer or walk through the 1%. FWIW on aired-down 650x47s and dropper post, I was able to rip the downhills just fine
Of course there is plenty of singletrack that’s more like 50/50, and I’m not going anywhere near Downieville or Skeggs with the gravel bike. There is plenty of space for both