Yes, because shiny metals offer more security than land, hydrate better than water, fuel fire better than coal, provide more nutrition than rice 'n beans, have more firepower than a bunker-full of Uzis, etc, etc, etc.
I'm sorry, but I've noticed how the various "doomsday industries" have made a fortune by sponsoring the alarmist content being broadcast on GCN shows (ex. Alex Jones), and some of them are more rational than others. Stocking up on non-perishable food, medical supplies, and water filters makes perfect sense - gold and silver do not. Those commodities have no productive value in times of stability as a stock market investment would, nor are they ideal things to barter in a real emergency, especially since modern technology makes shiny metals very easy to fake.
I remember the economic collapse in early 1990s Russia, where people bartered practical items for growing food and helping their families through the crisis. Most privately-held gold in Russia was confiscated generations prior, but the street value of the compact stores of value that some people did have -- jewelry, gold watches, medals, gold teeth, etc -- was ridiculously low because few people were willing to buy it. If someone had stockpiled medicine or plantable seeds instead of shiny metal prior to the crisis, he could have used that crisis to buy up other people's gold at tremendous profit!
Shiny metal is good if you plan to leave your home in a hurry, but most people don't have a better place to go. In that case it is much better to invest in productive land (i.e. your own little farm) and your relationships with other property owners around you (i.e. buying locally-grown food). This also includes local militia training, investing in local communications infrastructure, fuel / renewable energy resources, car parts, and so on. All those things are much cheaper now than they would be in a crisis.
Mark, I understand that what you're doing to promote those sponsors makes good business sense, and I would encourage you to do whatever it takes to keep FTL growing, but I reserve my right to be critical of those sponsors, if not on this forum than elsewhere.