Non-stuttering SLP here. This is a pretty "classic" assignment, and still considered more or less best practice for teaching non-stuttering would-be clinicians. Is it perfect? No. Is it somewhat controversial, for the reasons you listed? Yes. Despite the well-acknowledged shortcomings, though, the consensus in both the field and most stuttering communities is that "it's better than nothing". It does tend to have a pretty big impact on the students who do the exercise. What they ultimately experience is just a fraction of the real stuttering experience, and a limited fraction at that. But it often hugely reframes how these non-stuttering young adults think about the experience of stuttering... And we don't have any other exercises that provide the same benefit in a more appropriate or accurate way, unfortunately. There's a LOT of ways this exercise can be improved it worsened, laid out in the assignment criteria. How long and/or severely do they have to stutter? Is it with strangers, or friends? Do they have to use speech therapy techniques? In a group, or solo? How many times during the class do they have to do this? What's the framing pre-exercise discussion? What's the post-exercise discussion? How strongly are the shortcomings of this assignment made clear? Etc. I suspect you'll find that it's more than just a "wee bothersome" to do this activity, even though you're just faking it. The fact that you anticipate this will at most be "bothersome" is a good example of why (in many teachers' opinions) it's worth doing, despite the issues.