"I wonder if the reason for pushing Bronzed Gold over Brushed Gold was due to the difficulty customers were having in matching hardware with their Brushed Gold finish."

Maybe. but if you look at the Moen gold faucet webpage, you see that most bronzed gold products are destined to the retail and online markets while the brushed gold products are not. (The brushed gold faucets are available on build.com. The bronzed gold Meena is also on build.com but note the delivery time; its inclusion may be an error). The list prices of the bronzed gold products are much lower; perhaps manufacturing costs are also lower.

Well now just one more goofy finish everyone will make themselves crazy trying to match , I pray this gold thing goes away soon .

My guess it’s just a marketing decision to set them apart and provide another alternative.

As far as "this gold thing" ... it has always been around and will never go away!

It is critical to these industries that finishes appear "dated" within a decade in order to justify ripping them out and replacing them. You can expect a never-ending stream of the "new hot look". I expect avocado green and harvest gold to cycle back any year now.