SC, I don't think it's totally irrelevant. ATC may not be to the letter of the books required to provide separation, however situation s present themselves where the guy watching a radar may not be happy with what they are seeing and do something positive about it. It is tin plating our asses, there's no doubt about it. You may be totally happy with the separation you have provided yourself, the commander of the IFR may not, and if he files, guess who's going to have the customary bag of sh*t thrown in their direction?
And not casting dispersions on anybody's aviating abilities, what happens if the VFR aircraft fails to visually aquire the IFR (for what ever reason).
Reasonably, perhaps Crash and Burn could tell us all which unit he's refering to, as it may be somebody from there may be on the forum.
(And you'll have to excuse B-L. He gets a little carried away if he doesn't take his medication!)