I think most of us CAT guy's have no issue with the need to practise and would encourage it for all the reasons given even if some of us would rather it was on a training freq. I have to accept that getting such a freq is somewhat unlikely. So keep on practising and enjoy your flying.
What we all want is 121.5 in the UK kept for what it was meant for and that means cutting down the mis-use of it. PPs are not a mis-use in the UK and are fine.
How we do that is the real issue.