I never understood where the intrinsic value proposition came from. Value is subjective

Not so. Due to how things like gold are formed, there is an intrinsic value that physically limits how much you can actually get, and you can take that gold or gems or whatnot and fashion it into something like jewelry, a toilet seat if you so chose, etc.

There are some industries that are more subjective, such as diamond -- where that industry has been propped up by jewelers artificially inflating the value and gatekeeping what diamonds are allowed and what aren't, especially as we can create diamonds.

But precious metals cannot be created from something else, they cannot be generated from 1s and 0s, and those 1s and 0s cannot be fashioned into something that you can wear on your person to sell in a pinch like say Vikings used to do with their metals.

That is where intrinsic value comes from: being able to always use it as currency, no matter what circumstances the world is in, no matter whether computers exist or don't exist. Even if the internet, if technology died tomorrow, even if the federal reserve died with them, metals would still have an intrinsic value and could be used as currency.