Is is OK to do a “core restart when convenient” from the Asterisk CLI to have changes load rather than use the GUI?
The database has to be written to the .conf files, it’s not just a matter of reload.
Why would you need to restart Asterisk?
When you click apply changes the DB is used to create the Asterisk configuration and the dial plan. Asterisk reloads are then executed to reread the .conf files.