I think holds should be taught because they are good for situational awareness, and very occassionally one does have to do one.
But they are relatively hard to do well, which is why I think getting the student to do them early on in the IMCR training is just a revenue generation scheme. A bit like doing the first T&G circuits (in the PPL training) with a 15kt gusty crosswind - brilliant for revenue but the student just sits there messing up one landing after another.
The thing which most instructors won't admit is that there is no need to fly the hold to perfection, because the protected area is big enough for much larger planes and in many cases big enough for a 747 at 180kt or whatever. What matters is that one is flying the correct inbound track to the beacon; the wind correction doesn't have to be spot on and indeed cannot be spot on the first time around, given the uncertain winds aloft and the crappy instruments in the teaching planes which make it hard to measure the track versus heading accurately.
But with most schools scraping out the bottom of the barrel financially, there is a lot of revenue generation going on, sadly.