Gold (or any other metal) may not be a perfect monetary system, but given the nature of the elites that humanity must deal with, it may be humanity's best hope. With the possible exception of Bitcoin, of course.
Gold and all metals are inferior to bitcoin. As you point out, gold never stands on its own, it always requires a currency that is backed by gold, and no matter how much they swear and promise they will uphold this standard, they always end up printing more notes than there is actual gold and they have to come off the gold standard and back to fiat.
This cycle is impossible to stop because gold NEEDS a currency to work, and currency ALWAYS gets printed too much. The only thing that stops this is the invention of bitcoin. Bitcoin needs no currency because it is already easy to exchange, and it has all of the scarcity and controlled supply of gold that makes it a good store of value.
Gold will get eaten up by bitcoin and will be just another metal like nickel or titanium that is used for industry and jewelry, not money.