Looks fine to me mate, I can even see a few patches of bare gravel I like heavily planted tanks, I own on myself. As you say gives fish a place to hide, looks a lot more natural IMO and also is an excellent nitrate export.
heck, you could add more plants to your setup. It's not overfull at all. Just add some low growing plants in the middle such as ummmmmm those short fat sword plants...forget their names. But it looks fine to me. Remember that a lot of fish need open swimming space, just leave an open space in the middle and pretty much everything will do well.