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I don't think the difference is that large, but there is some. I haven't tried myself, but would be interesting to test it against each other.

You can compare gearing ratios on 99spokes, e.g. https://99spokes.com/compare?bikes=scott-speedster-gravel-20...

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I've been road riding with people who switched to gravel bikes and they were suddenly noticeably slower. They also seemed to run out of gas earlier which means they were expending more energy to keep up.

Weren't those new bikes heavier?

My own road bike is nothing particularly fancy, but it's very light. Just because those bikes may be made to take more of a beating than a road-bike, they may be heavier. I'm thinking in particular tougher wheels and front work, possibly the whole frame.

We were riding on mostly flat terrain so it wouldn't be a big differentiator.

Were they using tires without any tread?

interesting, maybe different frame geometry contributed as well?

I would imagine this would be considerable. Improving your aero position is the easiest way to go faster.

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