It’s a relevant point when you’re talking about severe economic disruption to the point of degrading to a barter economy. Gold or silver won’t help you much in that situation. If you have extra cash after getting yourself to the level of being able to survive, then as a store of value gold or silver makes sense.
In those extremes, maybe gold and silver would be priceless. Historically in third world countries, hard currencies were utilized in lieu of the local money, typically US dollars, German marks, Swiss francs.