The vast majority of the population never has any hope of mining BTC's gold. They don't have the necessary tech skills or the tech savvy.
Your substitution would hold up if we didn't need a lot of folks mining. You don't need a lot of people mining gold in order for gold to have value. But we do need a lot of people "mining" BTC in order for BTC to have value. If the blockchain doesn't get built, BTC has no value. So what's going to happen when their are only a few people building the blockchain? If only a few people are generating BTCs isn't that a problem?
You might respond, "If only a few people are mining gold, that's not a problem, because gold will still have value." But that response doesn't work. Gold will continue to have value whether or not anybody mines it. (Why? Who cares.) BTCs will have NO value unless the blockchain is stably built. The value of BTC requires their being a lot of "mining" (I use "mining" as shorthand for "helping build the blockchain"). When the vast majority of miners get cut out of business, what's going to happen to BTC?
Only while Bitcoin doesn't have much utility for most of the population. Which it doesn't at the moment because the infrastructure and businesses that surround it are still building up. Let's face it, it's mostly not usable or accessible for the average person who just wants to buy stuff. It's at least in large part populated by speculators at the moment.
That's why I'm in it for the long haul, because I can see the possibility of it catching on. If it was only about mining, then I'd at least have sold part of my holding by now.
My point stands, the vast majority of people were never involved in mining gold when we were on the gold standard and nor will the vast majority of bitcoin users ever be involved in mining. I myself have never been involved in mining and probably never will be, I bought mine on the market, just as most people will.