I'm a very frequent guest at this hotel and I have been in June in close contact with a Front Office Manager at this hotel about the very topic of the hotel being lousy at recognizing status. I am myself a Concierge member, most of which has been earned at this hotel.
G1 = basic member, G2 = Silver, G3 = Gold, G4 = Concierge. As you were G1 in the system, it explains why you didn't receive any gold benefits.
Some of my colleagues who are CCG say that they usually get an upgrade to Business Class and a welcome gift. The breakfast varies, sometimes they get a breakfast if they've been upgraded, sometimes they don't. I've even had to argue as CCC to get free breakfast in cases they haven't upgraded me. CCC usually gets a Junior Suite.
I think there are two main causes for the poor status recognition at this hotel. The first is poor staff training. There seems to be a lot of junior staff, and some of them just don't know what the different statuses mean, even if they have the mousepads. However, some of the more experienced staff simply don't seem to care. By experience you get to learn which check-in staff is good and which are not.
The second cause is a poor IT system. Whenever there is a problem with my status not being recognized, it seems to be many mouse-clicks away where they find information about status. Rooms are distributed in advance, so the person at check-in does not have the capability to upgrade you. It is done somewhere behind the scenes. Wrong status in system = no perks. If you are lucky, there might be a supervisor present in the room behind the reception who can authorize an upgrade, but that rarely happens. If you are a G1 in the system, I don't think many of the staff at check-in think about changing that to G3 when showing the Gold card. In any way, such a change would only take effect from the next time you stay at the hotel.
The welcome gift is random. Sometimes I only get a bottle of water, occasionally there's a larger tray with some fruit (not seen that lately), and the most common is a bottle of water and a bag of chocolate-covered almonds. I'm pretty sure gold members get the same.
If I'd be you, I'd send a mail to CC about this. You might get 10k points. If you're ok with that, take it. If you don't really care about the points and want to make a change, they will most likely forward your complaint to the hotel. From there they will give you a standard answer. But in my experience if you give constructive feedback, they will listen and you will be better treated the next time. I think I have some note on my profile saying "difficult person" or something like that, as the behavior of the (young) check-in person changed completely when he opened up my reservation. He turned completely pale, got very focused, and delivered a very formal and over-polite check-in process...
Sorry about the long answer
