As far as I know (last time I googled it) if speculation was removed and hoarding, gold would be worth about $100 an ounce for the things we need it for.

So yes we do have alternatives to gold. Things such as Bitcoin and crypto, which keep going up in value, while gold speculation has stagnated and is even going down. Weakening dollar and massive debts due to the pandemic should mean gold skyrockets, but people are buying the alternatives. It looks grim for gold. Tesla didn’t buy gold, they bought Bitcoin.