That reminds me of that joke:

Two economists are walking side-by-side.

One tells the other: I’ll give you $100 if you take a shit on the pavement.

He proceeds to shit on the pavement and grab the $100.

He then tells the other economist: I’ll give you $100 if you eat my shit.

The other does the deed and collects his $100.

After walking a few more blocks, one of them says: both of us left our dignity with that work back there and neither of us are any richer!

To which the other responds: no, but we grew our combined GDP to $200.

And they both walked away happy, patting each other on their backs.

Yes it does have applications nowadays but when gold was used as a monetary store we didn’t have electronics. Gold was mainly used because it is shiny, easily workable, rare, and never corroded.

The microgram of gold in my phone pales in comparison to the gold used in jewellery or hoarded.