did "teh mass" ever had gold in any meaningful way?
hmnope.
Yes, once upon a time when gold was money. Now gold 2.0 is money.
The plebs didn't hold any significant amount of gold. They were too poor for that.
Even the poor needed a currency for the exchange of goods and services, for the majority of known human history this has been in the form of gold and silver coins, my point still stands.
Or copper, wheat, grains and other such commodities.
Your point doesn't stand because you've provided factual evidence against it: gold was never a one-size-fits-all type of deal.
In the same way Bitcoin cannot and will never accomodate all use cases
Gold and silver coins sometimes mixed with copper and other precious metals indeed. Wheat and grains have not been used as currencies, certainly not for the majority of human history like gold and silver coins have. I am not sure whether to ridicule you here or to go about teaching history 101, I am a history buff myself, so I am a bit shocked that you are not aware of this well known basic fact and that you are even trying to debate this with me.