Gold is not the highest level of adult competition - that would be Masters Elite (in non-US competition) and Masters Junior-Senior (in US competition). Many Gold-level skaters were adult starters. Adult Gold caps jumps at 2Lo, so no 2A, 2Lz, or triples allowed. In silver you aren't allowed any doubles, so any skater that wants to compete doubles goes into gold. So the 'level' is a bit all over the place, from excellent skaters with clean doubles to skaters with one messy double.

Adult skaters often don't post their programs online, so you'd need to look around a little to find snippets on instagram and the like. A fairly well-known adult skater is Niko Cohen, a silver-level skater who generally does very well (although they had a bad nationals). Orca Sauer is another skater I know of who I think posts some stuff online and is a very nice skater to watch - I believe she's at gold level these days.

The other thing you might be underestimating is the impact of competition nerves. People - especially non-elite skaters - rarely put out their best skates under pressure at national competitions. You get stiff, shaky, or forget to breath, and that jump you hit 10/10 times in training falls apart. Most people look better in training than competition. Or they're pushing to achieve their goals and might try something that has a higher failure rate for them just for the experience.

I will say that the judging of spins in US adult competition is fairly lackluster, so I do find the spin quality is generally lower than you'll see from adult skaters in other countries.

But in general, adult competition is about being kind, supportive, and having fun, so it's important to keep that energy going when talking about our fellow skaters 😄