Gold Circle may be good value, and its top tier easily obtained, if you have a job that gets you across the Atlantic in business several times a year.
If you fly in economy, GC becomes challenging to even be admitted as a member. So I think the above statement, if true at all, is not an entirely accurate representation of the "attractiveness" of the program.
(BA is better in that there are no flights which don't earn, and you will get to some level of status, based on number of sectors travelled, even in the cheapest, shortest flights. The same strategy on EI - booking the cheapest fare - would never earn you a single point, regardless of how often you flew)