IMHO EIR would be a useless rating for many IMCr pilots. I fly out of an airport full ATC, and ILS and NDB approaches. Despite this, very few IMCr pilots I know plan long trips in IMC. I would suggest that these IMCr holders, like myself, more consistantly use the approach aspect of the IMCr rather than their enroute capabilities. We use the IMCr to legally and safely get home when the weather unexpectedly drops below VFR minima, or when the weather forecast suggests a changing mix of IMC and VMC over the time when we expect to get back - in such cases, sometimes we get back VFR and sometimes we need the ILS, but we almost always have that nice safe instrument option we've been trained to do and regularly practice.
On the other hand, if I were the holder of an EIR and get close to home and find I'm in the IMC period, I would presumably have to hold or divert. If I have to go elsewhere because an EIR does not allow me to land at home base, my alternative to the nice safe ILS may well be to fly further in IMC conditions and maybe let down into marginal VMC and grope my way into a nearby GA airfield that has no instrument approaches.
A