"it's pretty to look at and everyone has always wanted it as a status symbol" is not fundamentally objective value
that's subjective value, no matter how long it has been a mutually agreed subjective value. it's by fiat, not because of an intrinsic capability to meet ones needs.
Nehemiah6's answer was that it is worth a lot of money. so you can trade it for money that you can in turn trade for something like food and shelter.
PennEd's article said it makes nice coins.
which we can then trade for something like food and shelter.
neither of these answers show gold has value outside of specialized manufacturing applications apart from being a fairly universal currency for purchasing things that have actual intrinsic value.