The fact that goldbugs charge each other premiums for not paying in gold (or what they perceive to be digital gold) is not to my estimation a strong argument for cryptocurrencies.
Perhaps not. The advantage is not likely philosophical here though as large more cold and calculated bullion companies like APMEX offer this discount versus credit/debit.
I think a real upside of crypto is in dealing with entities that you view as very low risk (APMEX and other trusted bullion vendors) who view you (random guy buying) as potentially high risk. Crypto allows you to provide irreversible payment, which seriously lowers the risk to the vendor that you can somehow claw the money back (as you may be able to with a chargeback, fraud protection, even possibly the bank somehow reverse the ACH transaction etc).
When you send crypto to the bullion vendor they certainly have risk the value of the crypto itself can go down, but basically zero risk you'll able to claw it back. I think this plays a big part in making it the cheapest quick clearing way to pay for online bullion. Credit/debit buyers are paying premiums that account for the risk associated with reversible nature of most of the fast clearing options.
Ideally there'd be a basically instantaneous wire transfer that is impossible to claw back for any reason if you wanted the lowest premium.
