There are some benefits of regulation and they mainly concern platforms. Without regulation there were many exchanges owned by anonymous people or someone known by their facebook account and nothing else. These exchanges were disappearing one by one in 2014-18, like for instance quadriga and BTC-e. Regulated exchanges need to have certain collateral and undergoes normal bankruptcy procedures. It can still go bankrupt but it cannot disappear with your money. So the biggest advantage of regulation is transparency.
Gold and Silver markets are of course regulated.
Remember that regulation doesn't mean the end of the black market or p2p exchange. It's more like an official recognition.