Give it a try, Rebecca. It's not better than road biking, just a very different kind of bicycling, not just in terms of technique and equipment, but also the physical conditioning involved. Kind of like doing wind sprints versus long distance running. Both are good workouts in their own way.
I still ride pavement, too, so there's a place for both in my biking, but, yeah, being able to ride trails right in my backyard means I do more MTB, now. I try to add at least two 20+ mile road rides, each week, though, because, as I said, it is a different kind of physical conditioning. Speaking of which, the new Krampus is due to get some road miles, this week. About ten miles out on the pavement, I have a nice set of gravel roads to ride.