Yes, it was strange that such a well made socket could cause so much trouble. (I'm assuming a professional standard in kit like that.) In the days of the early mini and mainframes, a lot of gold was used. This caused problems of a different kind.
Gold contacts on memory became a no-no for a while, "tin" being the preferred surface. Generating micro-volts between metal types I suppose.
For a while, the de-commissioning of the old IBMs etc., was a nice little earner for the opportunist. I'm not sure of the total value of the gold however.