What does your firepit look like?

Mine looks exactly like your design. It's gas with a gas ring inside and purple and gold fire glass on top.

Mine is like the round design you have.
After a few years of big fires and getting rained on the bricks are starting to crack up. I may have to build another one or get something else this winter.

The circle design is pretty standard with those shaped stones. If you want to expand out, get a square stone to fit in between every fire pit stone.

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lined with gravel, lined the center gravel, laid the retaining blocks

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We didn't do this. Laid directly on top of grass. It sank into one side by about 1" and it's not the worst looking, but it is definitely something that could've been avoided if we laid it on top of gravel.

If you burn stuff hot enough, it will crack some of the top stones. We've had it for about 3 years now and it looks fine with the cracks. If we have to build a new one ever, it will only cost as you said, the price of just the bricks.

Lay lava stones if you like. Sand/gravel should also be fine. We just have a continual pit of ash in ours and blow it out onto the lawn since it's supposed to be good for soil if it's ONLY straight up burnt wood.

I'll post pics of ours later for reference.

I should also mention since this could be applicable to you. We technically live in an area where we're not allowed to have fire pits that can't be moved. So what I have is not allowed by the fire department/city if they were to ever ask questions. IDK where you live and if that applies but that could be something to consider unless you plan on demoing it later down the road.

Right now, I am just burning fire piles. My design is to just make an elongated fire pile directly on the ground (kind of like a giant 30' long pile that is about 5' wide by 5' high), and then I light it at one end.

I did buy one of those metal fire rings at Tractor Supply. I do plan on just tossing some limbs in it to enjoy as a fire pit.

My Design: The beauty of the elongated pile is that it just burns from one end to the other without getting too high versus if I stacked all of the limbs higher and with a smaller footprint. Also best to build these when wind is only slight to no wind and a day or two after a decent rain. An approximate 5'W x 5'H pile burns hot enough to burn down most of the height quickly as the fire moves along. You can see how it is almost completely burned up to the left in the picture. Big logs may take quite a long time to completely burn up .

Solo Stove. Smokeless. I was amazed!!