The answer is yes.
Using the convex side of the blade is good for moving small amounts of snow or maybe up to 6", but to MOVE serious snow and have it curl and roll out of the way nothing works like using the blade the way it was designed. Besides, you're not going to want to flip the blade around every time you want to move snow travelling in the other direction. It will happen.
You can get skid shoes at TSC pretty cheap and make your own brackets that can bolt onto the blade. A piece of angle iron with a piece of gas pipe to slide the shoe into welded on and a bunch of washers to give it some adjustment.
Works for me on my gravel drive.
Some advice... find a common spot to push all the snow into for your little snow mountain. You're going to lose some gravel anyway from it sticking to the snow as it's plowed so it might as well be in one place.