Gold stocks are a better portfolio option than gold itself.

No: Gold stocks are: first, stocks and second, gold. This is an important distinction for investors to recognize, because once it is understood, justifying gold stock ownership as a substitute for gold itself becomes very difficult. Owning gold stocks is not unlike owning other types of stocks. As a matter of fact, in the last three stock market crashes – 1929, 1935, and 1987 - gold stocks also tumbled into the abyss, belying claims by stockbrokers that they can serve as a disaster hedge and substitute for the metal itself.
Additionally, you could presumably own a gold stock during a period of rising gold prices and not participate in the uptrend simply because a company had diminishing prospects in the view of the investment community. This is exactly what happened to a big grouping of hedged gold mining companies during the 2002 – 2003 gold price run-up. They woefully underperformed the gold market amidst cries of foul on the part of a large number of gold stock owners. These companies were not included in the run-up because they had already sold their gold forward at a much lower price than the current market rate. Beyond hedging, many potential value killers could damage a mining concern: environmental cleanup, permitting, engineering problems, and wage disputes (only naming a few) could very easily stand in the way of profits. Gold stocks are not an investment in gold, but in gold producers, with all the nuances attendant to owning stock in any venture. There is no substitute for owning the real thing for the safe-haven investor.