Should you suffer a power failure, maintaining a safe RRPM is paramount, not altitude.
To advocate a technique that favours maintaining or gaining altitude at the likely expense of RRPM in auto is madness if you ask me.
We all know there is many ways to skin a cat. But there is a big difference between an experienced test pilot in UH-1 with high intertia who is ready for the failure, compared to an inexperienced pilot who has packed his daks and then reacted to a sudden failure in an R22 with no inertia.
Anyone who has done a zillion autos knows you can play with all sorts of stuff, but don't forget that they carry a wealth of experience and intuition with respect to the performance and RRPM behaviour of the aircraft in auto.
Not all pilots carry that experience or intuition, or have done a zillion autos.
To lead a pilot in a single to believe it is OK to do anything other than lower the collective initially when the engine fails and the adrenaline is pumping is in my opinion a very slippery slope indeed.