Is Gold an Interesting Part of DnD?

With gold no longer being the primary source of experience and leveling characters as it once was does it even function well as a motivator? Sure, every character wants to find gold to buy potions or magic items but at that point why not just reward them directly? Or does it still serve a valuable, motivating, purpose in TTRPGs? How best should you utilize it to ensure players want to go out of their way to acquire it for more than just a shiny new item. Obliteration Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/