I don't think anyone is suggesting that stopwatch and chicken bone nav is the only way it should be done. But, it should be learned first.
If a student is being taught both at the same time they will obviously take the line of least resistance and pay less attention to the old method, degenerating over the years as less and less to the point of none at all, then the skill is lost forever.
I once watched a student pilot place the protractor on a paper chart with the North pointer facing East. Easily done if you have no conception of where north is or how many degrees there are round the planet.