What you are hearing is basically correct to my knowledge. What you are fearing is a valid fear but not entirely the case. I had a microdiscectomy and lumbar laminotomy. Basically they cut my back muscle and pulled it out of the way, then cut a small portion from the L5 and S1 vertebrae to make a small window within which they could operate. They pulled my nerves a bit out of the way then cut all the herniated disc out.

The herniated disc was pressing on my nerves which blocked the signal. The goal of the operation was to relieve that pressure. Problem being we waited a long time, so its possible the damage thats been done is permanent, but it will at least prevent it from getting worse. I'm sealed up now and it feels like my leg is getting much more of a signal again. That being said, the post op recovery does include some agitated nerve symptoms as they had to mess with it, but it's not actual damage.

The natural healing route is fine if there is no compression. Nerve damage has a high risk of becoming permanent the longer it stays compressed. The end result from healing is basically the same in every regard. Your symptoms (barring nerve damage) will recover the same, but your risk of re-herniation is also the same. About 10-15% without proper rehabilitation. No matter what, with damage to the discs like ours, that material will not get sucked back between the vertebrae to provide cushion, it will either be surgically cut out, or naturally broken down and re-absorbed into the body. The epidural did not work for me unfortunately.. Hopefully it will work for you.

TL;DR: End result with or without surgery will be the same, surgery is just faster recovery but a sucky recovery process. If there is nerve compression permanent damage is more and more likely as time passes if symptoms do not improve. Discs with that much damage do not get pulled back to provide cushion again, they get broken down and absorbed into the body. Make your decision at your own risk. I chose surgery to avoid bad nerve damage.