I lived in St Louis with my daughter for a couple of years and put in 7 flower beds. I had to dig up all the clay , put it in a wheel barrel , then dump it in the woods. I refilled the beds with top soil, sand, and peat moss. The gardens were beautiful. Unfortunately the next year she sold the house and moved to Australia. She lives in Canberra which has a climate similar to Texas. Their front yards are all rose bushes and crushed stones. I’d love to trade my front lawn in for crushed stone. It would certainly save on water in this drought.
Hubby has removed a lot of clay from some of his beds, and the rest he has just continued to amend. Drought is hard to deal with, so I understand what you mean about the stone, and it can be quite attractive.