Gold price in 1973 was around $60, so if your thesis is that "something must happen", it might be worth asking why the same thing didn't happen when it crossed $200, $500, $1000, $2000, or $3000.
Actually things did happen in 2001 (9-11), 2008 (GFC), 2012-2015 (Eurozone crisis), 2020 (Covid) and 2022 (Russio-Nato war).
Each of these came very close for a major market depression (except 911).
The fact that none did only instilled in lots of people's brain to take an incremental bit more insurance in the form of gold (if you were to replay Covid or GFC today, what odds do you put that it won't lead to a great depression?)
Also you can argue that the gradual rise is tracking almost exactly the gradual geopolitical paradigm shift from unipolarity to multipolrity.
