Getting an IMC rating is good if you want to be able to fly to places and know you've got a good chance of getting home agian should the weather deteriorate - but that's all it is - a "get you home rating"
That use of the IMC scares the hell out of me with PPL's.
I don't know much about the IMC training due to getting given one on the back of my IR. But there is a big argument to include some form of 90 day rule that you have to have flown an instrument approach in the last 90 days or you stay out of the clouds. Its more like a rating to get you into something you can scare yourself with.
One of the times I scared myself as an instructor was when I stupidly thought I could make it to an airport IMC for a procedural NDB to ILS. Hadn't used my IR for 6 months. Work load through the roof, behind the aircraft. One of those I learnt from that. So even though I was doing 100 hours a month VFR flying with a full IR it wasn't pretty. Gawd knows what it must be like for someone who did the 15 hour course and does 5 hours a month.
MJ