YVR preclearance on a Monday morning
 

I have a Monday 7am flight to ORD (then transferring to an international destination). I don't have Nexus or Global Entry. I'm Star Alliance Gold and will need to check-in baggage.

How many hours in advance to do I need to be at the airport?

You are missing the critical datapoints: citizen of what country, where do you reside, and have you encountered any issues with US immigration (or customs) in the past?

Canadian citizen residing abroad. No issues with US immigration/customs.

Good news is no cruise traffic but there may be lots of business traffic. I'd give it at least 2 hrs as CATSA is very slow and immigration may be too. The only priority you'll get is check in and even that can be slow even with *G..

In my experience, US departures CATSA gets *very* busy from around 5am to 6am for the bank of flights that leaves around 6 (2xSFO, LAX, MSP, DEN, SEA). You can expect a wait of 30 minutes without NEXUS just for that. Immigration is generally not as crowded because they process people faster than they come out of the CATSA bottleneck.

CATSA is the security screening? Is there priority for *Gold or Amex Plat holders?

Yes, CATSA is security screening. The only priority is for Trusted Travelers (NEXUS and Global Entry).