Good decision. The closest I ever came to a gravel bike was a Fuji Cross I bought from Colorado Cyclist probably 20+ years ago, before gravel was even a thing. It was a steel bike with Ultegra. I had other road bikes, but figured this would be fun. It didn't take long before I replaced the knobby tires with road tires, because they seemed so slow. The cantilever brakes sucked. They didn't work well and I was constantly tinkering with them. So I replaced them with v-brakes and a travel agent. It was a lot heavier and didn't handle s well as my other road bikes. I realized that I was trying to turn this thing into a road bike, and that wasn't what it was designed to do, so I got rid of it.
I get people occasionally asking me about commuting to work on a bike. I've been doing it for almost 30 years. There's a great network of paved bike trails in the DC area. I tell them to get a road bike because they'll be riding on pavement. Invariably, they go out and get a hybrid. A year or so later, they've either abandoned bike commuting, or are in the market for a road bike.