Can anyone cast any light on whether this was the real reason this exercise was dropped from the menu?
Don't know about your company's decision but in the full flight simulator we used for UA training, it is obvious the hydraulic jacks take a beating at attitudes well beyond those used in 60 bank angle steep turns - although 45 degrees is OK. Because the G fidelity in terms of G manoeuvres is not available it is common practice to go off-motion for UA recovery practice.
As the purpose is mainly practice at flight instrument scanning IMC when in a UA, then it makes no real difference in the recovery technique whether the simulator is on or off motion.