Not sure how minutes wasted flying to Southend, you need to position yourself for both hold and procedure, not much time doing that from Stapleford to Southend, so not exactly wasted time.
If you depart from fully instrumented airfield, you will still need to fly that amount of time to get yourself into some position to fly back, enter a hold and do an approach!
Another positive thing, no landing fees at Stapleford, and no ATC delays. You pay for time you fly +5 minutes before TKOF and after LDG!
I have heard stories where people flying from places like Biggin Hill, spending 40 minutes on the tarmac, and paying for the joy of waiting and holding!
So depends what you want, if you want a no nonsense approach, than Stapleford is a good alternative. Quite surprised with such way of thinking.
Also if you can land downhill on 04 at night with approach, than you can land anywhere! There is a challenge and a learning objective where you look, does not need to be a 747 runway like Manston!