"no one can be bothered to sift through all the reports and find...

"no one can be bothered to sift through all the reports and find the best stocks, so everyone just buys straight gold."

Noone? Sure about that?

Try many individual investors who post on HotCopper such as Champ2003, Fishhead etc. etc. What about funds like Sprott's gold equity fund?

As for buying "straight gold" are you also sure about that? Or are there people who "think" they are buying "straight gold," but are just buying a paper claim to gold - a paper claim to the same gold as others have a paper claim to?