See, I had a notion as a reader that DC in the early 80s was kinda dullsville. At Marvel I had X-Men, FF, Micronauts, ROM, Alpha Flight, Avengers, and Star Wars.  From DC I just read JLA and LSH, and some Firestorm and All-Star Squadron. (I don't know why I never read New Teen Titans, which got very hot.) I had zero interest in Superman or Batman even though I had read a bunch of early 70s material from them in my older cousin's collection.

Now that you mention it, I did collect Amethyst, though in retrospect I have a feeling that was an unsuccessful attempt to get girls to read comic books. The art was great, though.  I agree that Marvel's titles that I collected were shared universe, which sometimes seemed forced (Micronauts fighting Hydra!). At the time the crossover potential delighted me, but that was before all the BIG EVENTS started happening, disrupting all the stories the indiviual authors were trying to tell in their books.

Back to the thread topic: Charlton and Gold Key never held any interest for me either.

By that time frame, Charlton and Gold Key are all but dead.  Charlton is almost entirely reprints and Gold Key (or Whitman, as it was now using, was selling only via the bagged sets.  Kind of hard to grab attention when you can't look at the comics inside.

Both of those companies, though, had great material if you were willing to look through the books.  Gold Key used to get you with the painted covers, that were usually better than the interior; but, some books rose to the challenge, like Dagar or Magnus:  Robot Fighter.  Same with the Phantom, at Charlton, or E-Man, or the horror comics from both.  If you were a superhero purist, you were going to have a hard time finding things to want to read at Gold Key and Charlton.  If you liked horror, fantasy and/or adventure, you would be rewarded.

Getting back to Richie Rich, a lot of the stories were the same, when read in succession; but, there were some really good ones that stuck with you, especially from the 60s.  I still recall one where Richie, Pee Wee and Freckles are all quarantined in Richie's mansion, because he has the measles.  Freckles and Pee Wee get to spend a night or two in the place, living a dream life, with swimming pool bath tubs and kid-sized trains.  Their parents worry about them staying there and then coming home to more humble surroundings.  However, when the time comes, they come rushing in to mom and dad, showing how much they missed them and how the real value was in family.  It was a sweet little ending to a fun tale and was later reprinted in the Harvey Classics, Vol 2 (Richie Rich) book, that Dark Horse published, in 2007.  I believe it was one of the early ones, when Richie was in Little Dot, or just after getting his own title.  When we got that book in at B&N, I flipped through it to see what was there; and, low and behold, there was that story I remembered so vividly, at least 30 years after I read it (in either an old comic or, more likely, a reprint).

Also, Richie wasn't a brat. He was a good friend to everyone. The wealth allowed for a lot of sight gags and set up mechanisms for the characters to go on adventures, with fantastic inventions from Prof. Keenbean, or while visiting one of the Rich holdings, or just trying out one of Richie's new toys. It was no different than Uncle Scrooge's Money Vault, or his treasure hunting travels with his nephews.

This is an important point.  Richie was very much not a brat.  He had a lot of friends, not because of his money, but because he was a good friend.  You never got the feeling he was using Freckles and Pee Wee or buying their friendship.  They enjoyed each others company and had fun together. 

To be honest, this is how most Americans picture all English kids.