It is a topic worth discussing. I recently went through a flight review with a CFI to regain my currency and it blew me away that they asked if I was ok with doing spin recovery, instead of just doing it. I asked why it was only an option and found out it is no longer a Transport Canada requirement. The flight school still teaches it when they can but it's not an official part of the training.
In my early 20's while building time I did an aerobatics course and became certified. I learned more about handling an aircraft in that ~10hr course (and all the solo I did after) than I did in my 55hrs to get my private. I gained a lot of confidence knowing that I could make the aircraft do what I want it to do. I even went as far as to start developing an upset recovery training course for my flight school. I would recommend every pilot takes at least an intro, and I do think it should be a requirement.
As for spin recovery, I found the instructor was initiating recovery too early on her demos. It resulted in a very nose down, almost vertical attitude and was well within the yellow arc during the pull out of the dive. I prefer to let it develop just a second longer and when the spin breaks you're only in a roughly 40deg nose down attitude and nowhere near the yellow arc on the pull up. This is treating it as an emergency procedure, in aerobatics you want to recover 90deg down line. I haven't compared the numbers as to which results in less altitude loss but I imagine a vertical dive to +140kts is going to eat up more alt vs a ~40deg dive to ~110kts.
