Most people I know who do gravel seldom do much more than “fire road” gravel. I’m just staking out a place for the road side of gravel.
Gravel isn’t a one-dimensional spectrum.
I’d view myself as being strongly on the road side of gravel. I avoid anything very technical, I almost never ride single-track, and my gravel bike is fit in road posture. I like doing mixed-surface rides with lots of pavement, like Halloween two days ago where I did a century with a 20-mile gravel ride in the middle.
At the same time, the gravel in my area can be quite rough and chunky, so my gravel bike is wearing 2.1" tires and I have little inclination to go smaller. Nearly everyone in my group of friends gravels on >35mm tires, and multiple people have recently switched to 650b in order to fit stuff in the 2" neighborhood.
My only point here is that you can get really far in gravel without the really wide tires. May not be optimal. I’m not going to second-guess Stetina. But you don’t need that clearance to have a lot of fun and race just about any race, or ride just about any trail. 35mm tires with like 20 PSI can do amazing things. You can do sand pits. You can do mud. You can do 2-foot drops.
You can also get your tires cut to pieces. Or you can dent or break your wheels on sharp-edged rocks, which I’ve seen happen to people several times in the last year.
Width and technicality are only roughly related to one another, as you’re exemplifying by talking about “doing drops” on 35s. Width is importantly influenced by surface type; technical trails sometimes have velodrome-smooth firm dirt surfaces, and the plainest of roads can be built out of 2" chunk blasted from the nearest mountainside.
I don’t see how it makes sense to give people gravel bike clearance recommendations without knowing how gravel roads are constructed in their area.
DK you’re just out there for so long that comfort starts to reign
If being rumbled by chunky surface all day is making you uncomfortable, it’s likely slowing you down even without accounting for fatigue. Being bounced around is waste of energy.