It's very likely that you'll get an offer to buy gold. Have you checked?
The only way I'd probably do it is if you have a lot of short trips planned and will use the free standby and checked bag benefits, and maybe free MCE at 24 hours.
I say "short" because if you are taking several long flights, you'll earn gold partway through the year. You're only benefitting until you've hit that threshold.
I bought it last year but I had a particular reason. AA designates certain seats as "For preferreds only" and that includes 23A/23F on certain A321 configurations and I really like that seat (there is no seat in front of it, so you have infinite legroom). So that plus the free standby was worth it to me. But it cost me $700, not $1200.