Nope, not gatekeeping. I know I won't convince you, but just think about that:
Most parts of the country are approximately medical deserts. So once you're educated, you are dispatched to said desert. Your hospital has standard pathways where nursing teams operate. Problem is, everything that escapes the standard pathway comes your way with no one to help you.
"Yeah, but there's UpToDate, MEDLINE, etc.". Well, no. NO! You simply don't have the time. Your job is to operate as a well-oiled machine to handle all the impromptu shit 70+ hours/week. That's why you did all this rote memorization.
A doctor is not an engineer. He is trained for a hostile environment where you have no time to think or search. As long as automation can't help (and it currently can't), docs are bound to memorization training.
No, medical education does not have to be this way. It is purely gatekeeping.
It's similar to how "You need a PhD" to land top AI/ML jobs. That's gatekeeping as well, though it is slowly changing.
Not many doctors or AI researchers will openly state this gatekeeping because they benefit, at the expense of those not in their field.