I knew the old adage, "better to have and not need..." would be repeated to justify swat training for personal protection. I heard it in my head when I was typing my first post. I really don't care if people want to train clearing shoot houses, hostage rescue, sniper skills, breaching, and vehicle assaults, but I'm not going to buy such a course and start wearing 5.11 like some of the Youtube stars out there.
I don't know too many places that allow civilians to do hot breaches and vehicle assaults. Clearing a shoot house can be thought of as clearing your own house or any dwelling you might find yourself in, and learning to work doorways and corners is a useful skill. Hostage rescues are certainly a bit much, although scenarios where family members are near you or need to be reached certainly seem plausible for the civilian. I've never been much into long range shooting, but I respect those that are. If you want to consider what I just wrote as "justification for SWAT training" I imagine you're more than welcome to. While there are certainly courses that take things to the extreme, there are also a lot that try to take elements that would be useful for civilians and make them an option.
As stephen pointed out, not everyone has access to ranges that allow certain types of training. My range allows work from the holster and fast shooting, but movement isn't something that I can do. Frankly it's a big liability when you have people of very mixed skill levels. Some academies try to mitigate this by requiring a progression through courses to ensure a baseline of skill.
When I look at some defensive handgun class videos, I see a wide line of people standing still, shooting IPSC targets. I don't see myself wasting my time traveling to a class like that.
To your point about people standing in line shooting at IPSC targets, I feel like that's a bit contradictory with some of your other comments. You don't see the need for "SWAT" courses, but think static shooting is a waste of time. The reality is many training facilities aren't going to let you go from beginner level courses right to the most advanced courses. There are, and should be IMO, intermediate courses in between. Likely those will involve stages where you have students on a line shooting at stationary targets. That doesn't mean nothing of value can be gained from those courses and there is a lot that can actually be covered with limited movement. A course where you have 10-20 students all moving and shooting is a very high level course because of the potential risk. It also takes a long time to get all the students through all the scenarios as you can only do so many at a time. There is typically a lot of downtime for each student, which isn't always an ease sell. I'd also add that shooting while moving, while definitely useful at times and certainly cool looking, isn't always that likely. It takes a great deal of practice to do well. I know people on actual SWAT units that have expressed as much. One reason SWAT units move as much as they do is the goal is to get other team members into the fight by making room. That's less common for a concealed carrier. Often shooting and then moving, or the reverse, is more common.
These days there are a lot of places offering a lot of courses. My guess is you can find at least one that would offer something of value.
It seems the military and police tactics and the competitive shooting foundation are also reflected in the type of weapons trained on, because, especially in the advanced classes, there are either explicit or practical requirements for issue or duty handguns in lieu of the type of guns that people are much more likely to use for EDC, personal protection.
This is a fair point. However, I watched a man go through a two day reflexive shooting class with a SIG P238. He needed quite a few mags in order to stay on line with everyone else, but he did quite well and as you pointed out he was using what he'd actually carry. At some point the onus is on the student to take some responsibility for making the course valuable for him/her. Many courses have high rounds counts in order to get in so many repetitions (and some do it for bragging rights to be fair). If everyone was there with three 6 rd mags it would be a slow class.
A good instructor shouldn't have an issue with a student being realistic about what he/she is going to carry and it's likely worth asking ahead of time. At the same time the student should also give some pause as to the fact that if his/her mags keep running dry trying to get through a drill, maybe he/she might want to consider a different pistol. You might say that you personally have already gone through that thought process and are carrying what you know you are likely to carry repeatedly, and if so great. However, I've seen some students realize that with not a lot more effort they could carry something with more capacity and finish the class considering different gear.