Yeah, I'm not understanding where these patterns were supposedly "lost" at, copies of the things, and had to fly them all the time in the sim back at the aviation college in the early 90s, and I know they're still using them from talking to modern-day students there.
The sims they had back then had pen plotters... it was real easy to see if you did them right or screwed them up if the whole pattern was "shifted" (winds), or legs weren't straight. I think their current setups just have displays, which is too bad... since you can't look at a display a day or two later and have an "a-ha" moment when you're scrounging through your flight bag and realize what's wrong with one of them.
Very first CFI also had me doing these (without a hood on) during the Private. Utilized more as a smoothness and "learn to hold headings looking outside" maneuver for that, than as an Instrument prep. They're effective as a way to "mix it up" versus just doing the same old ground-reference maneuvers.
Are there really places that aren't using them anymore? I know Jesse didn't utilize them for our Instrument work, but he had other techniques... which work well for him (and me, apparently... GRIN!).
It's also quite useful to do these when NOT set up directly over a handy VOR, but to do it off of some arbitrary waypoint away from the VOR that you have to find with cross-radials... that'll keep you busy... unless you have DME... that makes it a lot simpler.