Gunner76th
commented
7 years ago @Vorquel because of the fact that ore gravel is still affected by gravity, and follows the same game mechanic rules as vanilla gravel and sand, this is actually working as intended. The only way this could be changed would be if the ITT authors completely rewrote the entire gravity code that affects any blocks in the "falling" state, which would in turn break the vanilla mechanics of normal gravel and sand.
When gravel ore falls on a torch, the gravel ore will drop as an item, allowing players to skip leveling up tools up to the bronze stage. This does not appear to be intended, as the ore will not drop when mined with a low level mattock/shovel.