The only things that give money value are leadership (faith in the government) or military (punitive damage).

You missed freedom of exchange, or that you can readily exchange it with the next person easily, which no crypto has been able to do

So gold’s day in the sun from the 15th century to the 1970s was what?

Generically, perhaps. But specific money like the USD has value backed up at the point of a gun.

That is not the only thing that has backed the value of money in the history of humanity. It (violence) is arguably the most inferior social mechanism for enforcing value that has been tried.