Actually Gold gets you prioirity in many circumstances. For instance it gets guaranteed Y seat on closed flights.

On a recent flight from Dubai, I checked in along with my wife (blue tier), my sequence on the boarding pass came ahead by 190 from her! Maybe this was because I was a Gold, hence had higher priority on the flight (which was full in J and F by the way).

Regarding, luggage delivery, I had 4 checked bags under my PNR, we were in F, and yet the bags did not come out till much much later.

There are also the mileage benefits, that add up significantly: 50% tier bonus is always worth something (specially when you fly half way across the globe with EK, in F). For example: 9000 flown miles in F on a ticket booked online with EK ends up as 36000 miles. In a single return trip, thats enough miles (72000) for a Y return ticket between Oz and the Middle East (the tier bonus itself worth bringing 9000).

Also, I noticed that the flight pursers pamper the Golds more. But this is my personal observation.