But the market is for paper gold, so the price is for paper gold. Realistically, if you want some actual gold a lot of that price is going to be about delivery

But the market is for paper gold, so the price is for paper gold. Realistically, if you want some actual gold a lot of that price is going to be about delivery, storage, verification, etc, etc. The paper gold probably helps divert people who just want to bet on the price of gold away from the people who actually gold to do work (though inevitably the two groups will affect the price the other pays).