I think with all the chaos they just forgot to add the gold dust synth. Alchemists were already making mints at that time people were starting to look for gold dust, so the devs may have been hesitant to add it. Alchys would have probably taken the high price of gold, then doubled it or tripled it for gold dust synthing and walked away with ridiculously broken profits off the bubble economy. making even bubble weavers look like monkeys shaking hands for a dollar.

But now we kindof need a gold dust synth now that the bubble's burst.