Hello and welcome to CoW. I am glad you like the game so far.
Thank you for your comments.
Actually, I would not make myself feel bad for other players leaving. There have been many discussions of Gold and if it should be used, why it exists and I don´t know what else.
First of all, you can play the game, with or without gold. The choice is yours. However, if you decide to play without gold, you do not get any significant disadvantage. Yes, things may take a bit longer than normally and you might not have the option to do premium espionage, but from my experience - and I am a gold player too - the usage of gold does not make up for the lack of strategy and tactical planning. You can beat a gold player, if you use the right tactics and plan your actions carefully. It is more difficult, than beating a normal player, but it can be done. Besides, that the amount of gold used usually limits itself. Players like you and me are fine spending some money freely on the game. However, I would think twice if I am going to use 100 USD, just to get an advantage that lasts only until the map is done. Because in the end, once the map is done, all the gold spend is gone. If you spend a lot of gold the map is done faster...
I know that many people oppose the use of gold and feel it unfair. Still that should not stop you from using it. It is a main part of the game and we all know, there is no such thing as a free game. If you download an app in the app store, you either pay for it or it is free, but to get any further, you need to spend money or have to wait. It is pretty much the same. The Developers do have costs to run the game. Be it for server or staff, lincences, etc. Those need to be covered.
You will probably find a lot of people here, that will tell you using gold is bad, but you will also find a lot of players - non gold users - who see it as a challange. Others than again use gold themselves. I think it is also a matter of time. Speeding up a production or raise moral, because you don't have time to be online all day, that is what most people spend their gold on. Barely anyone uses excessive amounts of gold, to build a huge army, etc. and even such an army - if not used wisely - can be beaten.
Besides, it is a known problem, that people leave the map after a couple of days and start a new one or join a different game. There have been forum discussions about that as well. So I would see that more as a general problem, nothing that is possibly your fault. 
So I recommend you relax and enjoy the game. Use the map to practive and feel free to join any other games. As I said, you will find that there are players who enjoy the challange to play against a gold player or maybe you find some players, who use gold also. The forums can be a great place to look for people to play with!
R- Gold means nothing against strategy, its not 'unfair'
