Is surface=pebblestone what photos below show?
This taken on a forestry track. Administrative GIS says, “Gravel compacted” usable by “Traktor”.
Personally, I would call it gravel, as I don’t think they’re all smooth / rounded enough to be called pebbles?
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Based on the image above, I would have chosen compacted. Pebblestone is much finer for me and is more commonly used as fall protection in playgrounds or perhaps on park paths intended only for pedestrians.
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I would call that gravel. It may have started life as compacted, but has weathered to the point where it is no longer has the necessary cohesion and uniformity. Eg. from the wiki File:Eroded road - compacted surface reveals inner rough gravel.jpg - OpenStreetMap Wiki
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That is how I see that too 
It is too rough for compacted, the mixture of coarse and fine particles out of balance. Would like to tag this the answer, but have more questions. Will wait a bit. See next post.
I also ask, because I see that surface tagged quite a few times on tracks e.g. Looking at what StreetComplete shows, according to source code, looks not at all what the Wiki shows: File:Dscf1829-800.jpg - OpenStreetMap Wiki but like my picture above.
And how about this one? Also rocks eroded by water, therefore rounded, as typically found in riverbeds e.g: Anything more pebbly, like in the documentation, will make this unsuitable for highways?
File:Kiesweg.jpg - Wikimedia Commons
A bit I think, pebblestone almost always wrong on highways? Fine though for beaches and shingle areas?
I don’t know about always wrong? You can certainly have pebble footpaths, driveways & car parks (although usually private, rather than public) but I don’t think you’d have “pebble” roads as such?
The current picture in the wiki documentation looks like taken from an advertisement for a commercial offer for pebbles, and at that, a pile of pebbles stacking all the way down to the centre of the Earth Good luck riding a bike there, or even walking, or driving a car.
@westnordost I observed surface=pebblestones tagged a lot here by SC users. The picture of SC up to date? Do you think there is a middle-ground?
The first, I’d tag as surface=gravel, but if someone has tagged it as surface=pebblestones, I wouldn’t change it. The second, I’d tag as surface=pebblestones, but if someone has tagged it as surface=gravel, I wouldn’t change it.
The pebblestones image from the wiki shows more clearly that the stones should be rounded than the one used by SC. In the Dutch translation of the text going with the pebbles pciture on SC, I added (rounded) to stress that that’s how they should look like. Maybe this should be added to the German translation too?
Usually with footpaths, something like this likely started as gravel but compacted to its present condition.