Bug: Gift of Nature's Bounty

[Executor]

You can never have too much gold.
The more lands you have the more lands you'll have to build forts in. The size of the map doesn't really matter as you'll still need about 2000 gold per province for a fort, lab and temple even without troops and mages.

So unlike some statements that say gold and troops are obsolete by latestage of the game, having large amounts of gold can help you beat a much more powerful enemy gem vise.
He has the SC's but he can't raid you with all the forts, in larger scale battle you'll always bring more mages and troops to counter his, and even if he outnumbers you in SC and alike summons count by a large margin you'll still be able to confront him with a superior mage force.

GONB and alike spells are usually cast when you have nothing to lose, like Peter Ebbeson said.