I think most of the folks who see the wisdom in stockpiling food stuffs and selected commodities other than precious metals expect a total worldwide meltdown of society and the financial systems. They are not worried about paying for college...
In that scenario gold will have little value to those that survive as it wont be denominated in dollars it will be denominated in a third world like barter economy and its true worth is what it can be exchanged for to provide sustenance shelter or defense. Gold is only good when you have a marginally stable economy (like that in the US today) with a class of folks with an excess of whatever the local currency is and are willing to put that excess into gold.. Ive spent a lot of time in third world economies and no one in the masses there are the least concerned with the price of gold. They are concerned where the next meal is coming from... If you think the system will somehow survive then an argument can be made for holding a small amount. If you believe and are preparing for the SHTF then gold is a very poor investment in spite of what the folks peddling the stuff will tell you...
sheltering in place sounds great until the zombies find you or at least find your garden, and you run out of ammo
for the typical suburbanite shtf should consider the value of accumulating junk silver for the bug-out bag, for small survival purchases... and maybe some gold to buy you a piece of safety (real estate, liveaboard boat, or whatever) when you find it
precious metals should nor be considered as or compared with investments, they are wealth preservers, or as the article states, insurance - of retaining the value of some of your wealth in something that has universally been a prized barter item (aka money) for over 6000 years
so we have different goals - different strokes for different folks
Cheap, easy to store, easy to conceal and carry if you go on the run, universally recognized as “money” in any barter system