Could be worse
I live in the desert (Utah). My yard will look like this soon. It’s too expensive to water our lawn so we’re going with a xeriscape.
Looks like an example of xeriscaping, or gardening with a minimal need for irrigation. Not the best I’ve seen, but at least it’s water-conserving.
Is the native landscape a rock garden? If you live in the Mojave: Go nuts, but that black rock is going to bake your house and drive up your carbon dioxide usage. Plants breathe just like animals do and that increases humidity locally, and in dry climates that can be a significant cooling effect. Essentially cheap evaporative cooling.
Honestly, that may be better. At least it doesn’t use water and it would be fine in a very dry environment out western US.
Native plants would still be even better though.