This question has two answers and they are both correct, which is why everyone finds it confusing.
Can you get gold exposure in a regular IRA at a normal brokerage? Yes. Four minutes, a ticker symbol, done.
Can you hold actual gold coins in that same account? No. Not a chance. Your brokerage has no vault and no interest in acquiring one.
So the whole topic hinges on a distinction people skip past: gold the substance versus gold the exposure.
They behave almost identically in your account statement. They are enormously different in cost, hassle, and what you actually own.
And the entire gold IRA industry exists in the gap between them, which is worth understanding before anyone calls you about it.