Yup.

All the streets used to be pavers too. Damn shame they paved over them.

Environmentally they’re way better, but less stress on the storm drains, more traction with less road salt, easier to repair streets back to original condition after utility work.

It’s also cheaper in the long run. You can go a century+ between replacement. Some streets in Europe still have scratches in pavers from tanks in wwii.

It’s clearly superior, and lots of European cities do exactly this for low speed roadways.

But asphalt is made with petroleum byproducts they’d otherwise need to properly dispose of, so lobbyists like asphalt to be used as often as possible. Selling it as a product is profitable rather than a cost.