You absolutely don't need any "account" for crypto.
Normal crypto currencies have a "wallet" thing. It is just a file that could be stored either on your own machine, either on someone else machine. One who owns machine with your wallet file, owns all your crypto.
Crypto "wallet" is nowhere near anything like "account". It is much closer to "your own bank".
Could any shed some light on why we can’t simply have currency backed by gold?
Because scales.
You absolutely don't need any "account" for crypto.
Normal crypto currencies have a "wallet" thing. It is just a file that could be stored either on your own machine, either on someone else machine. One who owns machine with your wallet file, owns all your crypto.
Crypto "wallet" is nowhere near anything like "account". It is much closer to "your own bank".