Physical is preferred, in a real panic you’ll find that paper assets are never rly the number 1 options. Never sell unless a better opportunity arises a decade or two from original purchase. Most physical buyers make purchases over long periods of time taking advantages of price.
The etf is a bet that it will go up, why pay etf fee’s should the gold market stagnate or go down for multiple years before reaching new highs.
Physical commodities also speak much louder in the real world.
Paper assets like mining stocks or gold royalty stocks can be good over periods of strong demand, though you rly need to be experienced in that area.
This is in no way anything more than an insight. Silver is heavily used in the renewables sector and Biden is strong on this so personally, silver seems to be the current in demand commodity which its price is so manipulated low that history may prove it has much more room to run. Again, it’s a marathon not a sprint.