Mountain bike vs true gravel bike

I have 2 primary bikes that see 99% of my riding. a Soma Bside hardtail rigid fork 650b and a Soma Wolverine. The Bside is supposed to be my snow bike and my mountain bike and sometimes I bike pack on it. My Wolverine is supposed to be my gravel bike and road when I feel like it. But I cannot tear my love away from the B side. I have lust over gravel adventures on a mountain bike with all my gear strapped to it and having the ability to really go off road if needed. I am sporting cowbells on my Wolverine and Jones H bars on the Bside. Basically I have a different favorite bike day to day. I sometimes think my Bside can be my only bike I need with the proper tire selection but I just bought the Wolverine frame in November and transferred parts from my Vassago so I am thinking what a waste of money lol. Basically I have a tendency to resist hoarding of multiple bikes that collect dust. What do you all ride and do you have 1 main bike or do you switch it up regularly?      

 
Spoiler alert!  This was just a sweet gravel bike with 700x40's and could dabble off road for sure.  But now it is pretty damn hard to not ride this bike everyday, every where.  Kona Ti Rove with my old XC mtn. race wheels....  Enve XC 27.5" rims, DT Swiss 240 hubs and Maxxis TT Race tires!
*The biggest tires I can fit are 2.0's

That is a sweet ride!

Sweet looking bikes there....I think the Jamis Renegade is a cool ride.

I like it but was considering selling it and building another Private Jake but in a 1x11. Just not sure I can get what I need out of it.

Cool bikes cmcalpin. Well I have the same tendency to ride multiple bikes. I am having 3 bikes. Will share the picture.

I have a couple bikes but ride this (modified anodized 6061 mutt ) nearly exclusive  mixed terrain pavement,dirt,gravel,forest service roads,single track - mostly hop and go from my garage.  
  
I prefer 700 x 45c / 42c wheel-tire range (622-42/46) The bar style (dirt drop,alt,flat,riser),frame material etc. .........is less important to me after that and I tend to like (drool) over it all if it's in that wheel,tire size range.  A decent set of wheels are worthy of a little extra.

I am mid 50s age downsize is on my mind more with most things rather than increase.......so yea - "i get it"

Nice bikes btw

There seems to be no absolutes here. And that is a good thing. In the dim (not so distant past) there were no clear distinctions between mountain, road, touring, and now gravel, bikes. For simplicity, I'll leave out recumbents, and cruisers, and other variations. The bike, as I know it then hasn't changed very much -- double diamond frame and chain and sprocket drive. pneumatic tires. In the past, you rode your bike over --- what ever. And some folks still do: Google "Eroica" to see what I mean. Then, along came the mountain bike, which in some ways, changed the way we think about bikes --- wider knobby tires, suspension, tubeless tires, disc brakes etc all changed the way we think about bikes. The modern gravel bike steals bits from all of these designs and technologies. If you come to gravel from a mountain bike background then you likely want to a ride a bike that favors mountain bike tech. OTOH, if you are an old time roadie like me, you tend to favor road bike tech and perhaps less challenging roads. I'm not disappointed with this. I love all the choices we have, and I'm delighted that I have all of these choices, and traffic free places to ride with my friends.

For so many years I just had one bike - a high end steel mountain bike, that I would just change the wheels on.  
I did hard core mountain races
I did 500 miles tours at ~20mph
I did pace lines with cat 3 racers.

Now I have over 1/2 dozen bikes.  oops!

lately I have been rocking a Bikes Direct CX bike.  Very light, very fast, very good components.  I'm back to changing wheels again.  30-32mm for fast road rides, 40mm tubeless for mixed rides, 45mm toothy front tire for rides that include singletrack.

I do rather like riding a fast drop bar bike to my singletrack, & then doing some riding in the woods, rather than putting my bike in the car in order to drive to the single track.

I still
need the mountain bike when the course requires suspension.
need the tandem for doubling up
need the road bike for - dunno - nostalgia and maybe some fast road group rides
need Track bike for lapping the velodrome

but yeah, a good drop bar bike with good 30-40mm tires can do just about anything I want to do.

I have 4 bikes. My first is a Jamis trail x650 but I gave that to my son. So I got 3 bikes lol. My Soma and my Wolverine, as pictured in this thread, and another lovely beauty, a 1985 Panasonic dx3000 that I saved from the dump. It is in very good condition. Depending on my mood is what bike is my favorite. I couldn't answer that at all. Right now I am getting ready to upgrade cranks on my Panasonic to a modern set of Sugino compacts to give me a little more range. And i think I may take this baby on RAGBRAI this year. Heck I might even google 80s biking clothes and dress the part. IDK.

P.S. I realize mention of my Panasonic is off topic for a gravel forum but since everyone was talking about their stables I had to throw it in.