We have only a small space in our garden that's quite sheltered and has poor drainage. We use that space for the dogs to do thier business and if it was real grass there it would just be a toxic shit swamp.
Also in the city near me they took up a lot of paving stones on a well travelled area and replaced it with Astroturf. Were it real grass it would be ground into a dirt track in a few days.
Yep we had a small 3m square patch of paving, we tried turf and it died due to overuse with kids playing and use using it for sitting out, picnics and BBQs. The choice is deck or fake grass and fake grass is cheaper.
We have wildflower border and fake grass currently.
BBQ is on a couple of paving slabs, was morr talking about social seating and eating But paving slabs are hard, less comfy for play and seating. Also they get very hot in summer (seem to get hotter than the fake grass). I don't see why dead area of stone is any better
Hardy ground cover may work but we have struggled to find any hardy enough to establish.