I have to aggree, the thrill to manage to get maps at expert to get specific upgrades is lost with the gold alternative. It makes it meaningless to learn AND play specific maps, so playtime and variety is suffering, but also ecconomy, because you don't have any interest in getting special cards for some maps/strategies, so those cards are worthless (which would otherwise have some usages).
All in all, especially longterm, this gold thing is hurting this beautiful game more then it helps.