While the docker-compose specification accepts both strings and numbers, using a number seems to be rejected on the engine with a JSON unmarshaling error
(HTTP code 400) unexpected - json: cannot unmarshal number into Go struct field NetworkCreateRequest.Options of type string
This after pushing this valid network configuration
networks:
default:
driver_opts:
com.docker.network.driver.mtu: 1420
Leaving this as an issue for discussion