Funding an army is not the only use that gold has, of course. Buying buildings though, I think will always be less powerful than buying CS gifts and units. If you go peaceful, you may as well build the buildings because often, your tech rate is such that you don't have much to build anyway. Trying to build Wonders primarily and buy the other buildings (which is what I think you're talking about) is folly, in my view. You'll end up being pipped to the post on 90% of them and end up wasting a ton of hammers.
Someone will correct me if I'm wrong but most peaceful Deity players usually only buy science buildings, and they are planned and saved for quite easily even with the Neutrals.
I don't mean build Wonders all the time (you usually just need some choice ones, anyway) but it does help guarantee the ones you want. It also helps, getting certain buildings as soon as they're available: science buildings are good for this, but buying Windmills is something I also like to do (they usually take a good while to build in most cities), while using hammers on the ones that take a smaller amount of turns (money, culture and happiness buildings usually get hardbuilt like this).
I've heard of Deity players buying Factories to get an ideology immediately, which means you don't absolutely need to rush Radio right away (though this is hard, factories are expensive).
And like you said, buying units becomes a more feasible option. The main advantage of buying things instead of building is speed, and this is even more valuable with the army.
(Also, to clarify, I'm not saying you should do these things instead of tending to CSes, just that these are additional options. No need to neglect CSes.)
All of that considered, you're right in that I haven't tried these things on Deity yet. I do have a good idea of how the game progresses though, and buying hammer-buildings immediately would help a lot. I definitely don't think "more gold" is a small advantage, as the abundance of Gold helped me immensely in the Aztec DCL.
I think it helps Freedom SV, but you'll not do well at that VC if you're Venice or Portugal, compared with the Neutrals. Not sure if makes CV any easier, and judging from what you say below, if you've not tried for a CV on Deity, pardon me for saying so but I don't think you'll understand how tricky it is compared with Emperor. The other day I saw in the DCL that someone had to overcome 105k of AI culture. That's crazy!
No, gold-mongering civs aren't significantly better in the "Space Procurements" goal, I agree (really, any Civ can get the necessary funds in a jiffy at that point, as long as they're not hated by the rest of the world). They can get the hammer & science buildings up and running faster, though, and that helps for any victory type.
Also, funny you should mention the CV, as I got a Cultural Victory with both Portugal and Venice on Emperor pretty much unintentionally: I was aiming for a Science Victory, but I noticed my tourism output was big enough to aim for a CV instead. Once I have a bit more experience on Deity, I definitely want to try to repeat those victories in that difficulty.
My dim view of Portugal's UA is based on the fact that most peaceful players send food to their capital to grow it for science, on Deity. And even if all the trade routes are going to the AI for whatever reason, it's not enough of an advantage.
I understand if you feel it's not a big advantage on Deity (I certainly don't have hands-on experience with it on Deity), I was just comparing it to the rating you gave to German UA, which also saves gold, but under much more specific circumstances.
(Also, even if Deity players use more internal Trade Routes, external ones are still not going to be neglected entirely, especially if Cultural is the chosen victory type.)
The next minute he's going shopping for Levis and Lady Gaga (or the Brazilian equivalent). It happens so fast.
Carmen Miranda might be a much classier Brazillian equivalent
And the culture leader will not be buying Levis, s/he needs to be home at 18:00 to watch the Telenovela!
(I do find it brilliant that Brazil can be a cultural leader in Civ 5, as they have a much bigger influence in the rest of the Portuguese-speaking world than the other way around. And other Latin-American countries have started teaching Portuguese in schools, but I haven't heard of Spanish being taught in Brazil yet)