I too have real doubts about the wisdom of practising turns back after EFATO or of promulgating what an ace pilot has achieved in practice. I am not a hot shot pilot and in the heat of the moment reckon I would be so unnerved by a failure for real that an ability to fly accurately on the edge of the stall would be non existent. Flying at the edge of the stall is not normally the best glide speed and things are going to be worse anyway with the engine stopped for real as opposed to idle. I have practised180 degree turns after a simulated engine failure in the climbing attitude (but at a safe height, not at ground level and using a straight road as a reference) and found I couldn't get round in less than 600 to 700 feet and that didn't allow for the additional S-turn needed to get back on the centre line. The other thing I noticed was that in my plane it takes some time and horizontal distance to get to 700 feet so that even if a turn back was possible vertically, it might well not be possible horizontally and you could fail to reach the runway if it was short. Much better to face the inevitability of an into wind forced landing than a wind behind you forced landing into the airport threshold. And if you know that "EFATO = Lower the nose and Land ahead", you can plan for that as an instinctive drill, so that when the moment happens you don't waste time whilst your brain unfreezes.
Thanks Mary for your comments on cable breaks - I am just about to try my hand at gliding so it is interesting to realise the same issues occur,.