Good job practicing the turnback maneuver at 3,000 AGL! If more pilots did that, there would be fewer sad events.
I could not disagree more. This is negative training at its best.
First you know in advance what is going to happen and so the shock factor that will be present on the for real EFATO is absent. Worse however is you don't get any ground rush. This is how people die in the real world.
As you crank the airplane around you see the ground rushing up and there will be a strong instinctive reaction to pull on the control which too often results in the stall-spin-die trifecta
The AOPA safety foundation did an accident record research project into the difference in outcomes of turn backs vs landing straight ahead.
Their conclusion: A turn back was 8 times more likely to result in fatalities
I told all my students don't turn back unless you were at 1000 feet AGL. The only exception is if you had already turned crosswind. At that point
consider a turn to the nearest flat part of the aerodrome.
Finally at the risk of sounding like a broken record, the accident statistics clearly show if you are flying a typical Continental or Lycoming powered certified trainer/tourer like a C 172 or Pa 28, about 80 % of the engine failures are caused by the actions or inactions of the pilot.
The best defense for an engine failure is to not let the engine fail in the first place.