God save us if if we end up with this sort of silly instrument en route rating.
Exactly.
With an IMC rating, I would not
plan to fly an instrument approach on my own with forecast cloud base below 1000 feet. But on a journey of more than an hour, say, a TAF of BKN010 can turn into a METAR of BKN005. Now the IMC rating teaches bad-weather circuits with a cloud base of 500 or 700 feet, but how do you get down from IMC to VMC well below MSA? That's why an IMC rating must enable pilots to fly an instrument approach.