Driveway with gravel - with and without separation fabric

Hello
we and our neighbor have gravel on the driveway, with us the gravel was poured directly onto the recycled base, whereas our neighbor first laid down a filter fleece and then the gravel on top of it.
In our case, most of the gravel has been pressed into the base and we have a lot of weeds (all kinds from nettles to grassy weeds and various herbs, etc.).
Our neighbor has no weeds at all.
As is well known, the weeds come from above (through airborne seeds and seeds sticking to the car and washed off by rain, etc.), is it because our neighbor’s layer thickness of 4-5 cm always remains the same due to the separating fleece and therefore the seeds do not germinate?

By the way, the weeds for us are only outside the driving area.

We are now considering removing all the gravel, laying down a fleece, and putting the gravel back on... Or even using those gravel stabilization mats right away...

Would that help regarding the weeds? Or does the neighbor go over his driveway at night with chemical weedkiller?

Gravel stabilization mats only protect against sinking into the gravel, but not against weeds. I only know the combination of these mats with fleece. One should also consider whether to cover the entire area with plastic. We have gravel, driveway without fleece, paths with fleece: there is always some weed plant that needs to be removed, with or without fleece.

Well, gravel stabilization mats ensure an even layer thickness, thereby practically suffocating weed seeds falling/sinking down at the germination stage. A separating fleece is also plastic in that sense. There is, for example, also gravel stabilization as a honeycomb grid made of geotextile material like the separating fleece (GroundGrid, for example).