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Depends on how much ground you want to cover, how much of that will be road, how much packing ability you need and/or how steep and technical the climbs are.
If you're OK to walk stuff when you can't navigate it but want a versatile bike to get around a lot, I'd say gravel.
If you want to ride up and down stuff and have more confidence in technical sections despite relative lack of skill, flat bars, suspension fork, a dropper and ultra low gearing certainly helps with that. Then I'd opt for XC.
Looking for something to bumble around off road with around bristol and Dorset. I have zero technical skills and won’t be doing anything approaching challenging to anyone with a modicum of talent. Am I better off with an Xc bike or something more gravelish?