The golden color goes away when it's in more airy medium, thankfully.
They make good trunks, but they are susceptible to rust and everything else. Tough as nails though!
Foliage is a bit sparse when they grow hard, which is hard to make pads out of. But Bjorn Bjorholm did a styling recently that turned out pretty nice. I'm grafting mine with chinensis or itoigawa because I prefer working with that kind of foliage.