I challenge you to define "excess". Without a norm, this is a judgement pulled out of thin air, because excess means exactly to exceed the limit set by a norm.
The OP suffers from a similar problem. He judged the use of gold "ostentatious" (which is pejorative), and behind this judgement is a tacit backdrop of sensibilities and I claim prejudices that constitute a pseudo-norm, but no objective norm. Arbitrary norms are not interesting.
The OP suffers from a similar problem. He judged the use of gold "ostentatious" (which is pejorative), and behind this judgement is a tacit backdrop of sensibilities and I claim prejudices that constitute a pseudo-norm, but no objective norm. Arbitrary norms are not interesting.