I been playing a fist build since 1.0 and so I can honestly say that Yes, gold are stronger because they are a crit base weapon if you use it as such. And elementals creatures appear to be damage every time as long as long as it crits.(it will resist a lot of non-crits tho) however Iron is dirt cheap to make, base damage is good so you don’t gotta focus on 3 different boons you can play around with range, speed, tough as nails, is super effective up T4 and you begin seeing a decrease it the effectiveness at T5s. (Most hunts are happening at t4s so an iron fist is definitely a viable option and it doesn’t have arch like bows)
(Of course if you got gem weapons I would suggest using gem bows at t5+ over fists)