Are today's studes actually taught 'rotate speed' in SEPs? If so, I despair!
Yes, or indeed I was anyway. With the theory being it's an important part of short field technique when runway is limited and gaining speed / height is a priority.
The main runway at my airfield has large trees at the end so you don't want to hang around on the ground too long. I was therefore taught to 'rotate' as soon as safe to do so, i.e. 55kts, build up speed in ground effect, then climb out at optimum rate.
Obviously not such an issue if you have 2km of tarmac in front of you, and you can sit around all day waiting for the plane to decide when it's ready to fly!!