Gold - ALL TIME HIGH, page-11

Your point about inflation might have some validity if everyone bought gold in 1980 and has hung onto it since. Anyone who bought in the recent past (from 2000 on) doesn't give 2 stuffs about your old chart.
And as I'm sure you know but won't admit, most people who buy gold do it to protect wealth they have already accumulated in other investments, not for rocket ship type returns.