My uncle poured concrete under his fire pit in Reno back in 2019 and by the next spring he had cracks from the heat plus a nice little weed crop coming through the control joints. Gravel lets water pass through, which means less heaving when it freezes and less pooling when it doesn't, so the neighbor's weed problem was probably a weed barrier issue, not a gravel issue. You two are basically arguing about whether to fix drainage or fix weeds, and most home projects come down to that same choice.

The 30 dollar sunglasses I bought off a guy at the beach held up better than my 200 dollar pair. Same thing with my aunt's "antique" vase from a garage sale that turned out to be from Target. We trust the label or the setting way more than our own eyes. That museum cast was probably made with better tools than the original fossil ever had. Sometimes the fake is just built to last longer.