To be honest I was bored of SEIV basic, some of the little quirks that were in the game even after the final patch just bugged me (multi play who goes first at warp point, etc).
Gold rocks!! The AI does honestly seem smarter, it lands troops on planets!!! Drones are interesting. For modding the limit of stuff per ship seems to be much more adhered to (ie, make an engine armor as well, previously the AI would fill the ship with engines, as well as bases. Havn't seen that in gold yet). That and all the 'new' abilities that are being added (new mount options, units.txt file etc) and the promise of new 'toys' as well as bug fixes just means gold is that much better. (till se:Quad Wars comes out anyway)
Gold, just do it!
