its not for a certificate its a requirement for EU-OPS SPA commercial transport.
So as such its just a QA check by the AOC post holder that the regulations have been complied with.
You can't blame these pilots though been instructing for years, and the only jobs they have had a sniff at requires these IFR hours.
To be perfectly honest quite what 100 hours prove IFR I don't know. Its a bit like the PICUS logging as a FO some get their knickers in a right twist about it. Me I never logged a single hour of it as I had PIC time instructing in a tommy VFR. Which there is very little comparison to a pref A multi crew airline operation.