noone actually transports physical gold, they just transfer the certificates of ownership (physically or electronically)
However if you dig ;-) deeper you find out that a country like India is estimated to have 15,000+ tons [2] of gold held privately traditionally as jewelry. This Indian form of savings is widespread and does contradict your statement regarding physical gold. Other countries have similar although normally less savings held in this form.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_reserve [2] - http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2011/07/14/indias-600-bil...
Those third parties spend quite a bit to store the gold in secure facilities guarded around the clock, transport the gold from/to those facilities in armored vehicles, and keep the gold hidden from view, e.g., in underground vaults.
Guess who ends up paying fees to cover all those costs?
Certificate holders.
A lot of someones burn a lot of electricity 24x7 in order for bitcoin to hold any value, too - and bitcoin holders pay for it just the same.
They're naturally located where electricity is much cheaper: they're using environmentally-generated or surplus power, close to the source, at bulk industrial rates. The author even said it in the same article, but did not factor it into the clickbaiting comparison.