All I know is that I was so deathly bored in school that I stopped showing up. It got so bad that they threatened to expel me despite my protestations that I was maintaining high grades without even showing up to class, and getting scholarships.

Would I have excelled in a "gifted" program? Probably, provided the material wasn't so trivial, dull, and repetitive. Would everyone benefit from a significantly increased difficulty? I'm not so sure.

Holding students to a high standard, and taking time to engage with them such that you earn their respect will of course raise student performance. However, applying the word "gifted" en masse simply dilutes the earlier meaning of the word.