Why would gold, something that’s had value for thousands of years prior to the Industrial Revolution, have any value?

Gold doesn't corrode away. If gold was cheap, my roof shingles would be made of gold. You'd also have gold wires instead of copper wires.

Even in ancient times it was consumed to make jewelry and decorations. People used to go to the goldsmiths to sell their gold.

Wouldn’t that be for the same kinds of reasons things like purple dyes were valuable: rare to find, hard to harvest, hard to transmogrify (insect/sea life guts into clothing dye, gold into chains or other wearables), hard to break, which all culminates into a quick visual indication of wealth.

Now? Gold is a great conductor of electricity (of course silver is better) and some people still like wearing lots of flashy jewelry.

I have no earthly clue why people find it valuable to invest in other than it’s like bitcoin: it’s valuable because everyone else also thinks it’s valuable.

Never once have I read a quarterly progress report from the CEO of the element “gold” outlining profit strategies for the next year.