yes, you can increase the value of gold faster by betting against the petrodollar you forced by basically putting a gun to the President's head, because now IT is a precious commodity and the dollar has no intrinsic value without it. makes sense to invent the petrodollar off of oil or something else, because oil has no permanence – it gets burnt up just like the petrodollar.

but gold is beautiful and it can be used ornamentally, too. it signifies something. it doesn't pollute the atmosphere when overused. it can be used to guild an entire temple. then people will KNOW you're rich; whereas, everybody knows you're not really all that rich with even billions of fiat sitting in your bank account.

or, at least, fiat doesn't really convert well to political power, because nobody goes to war over fiat. yes, we have other precious minerals and metals these days, but none quite like gold.

perhaps, it is just human sentiment at play, but wow is gold quite sentimental for some people!