Yeah. I have had one for a few years. In my opinion it should be required training for all pilots.

Where I like to fly there are no controlled airfields, so everything is UNICOM. You hear people practicing IFR approaches, NDBs, ILS, GPS, etc. They will never give VFR location calls. -Sure I know exactly where you are when you call "Blah Blah beginning ILS to runway 29." But this is just a personal rant.

We never fly hard IFR. Typically we just use IFR as a way to take off and get above the clouds so we aren't delayed. If an airport is socked in we'll just go a different day. Fly for us is a hobby and is something to be enjoyed. We don't do it on a schedule, just when we have the conditions. There is nothing 'fun' about flying IFR in clouds. However with the new autopilot we might do it more. Keeping a nimble airplane on track in the clouds is a full time job when you are doing it by hand.

I flew quite a bit of IFR in IMC weather this winter. That is, I didn't see the ground when flying between January and the end of March, other than on takeoff and at or slightly above minima. And that was when flying a G1000-equipped C172, Columbia 400 or a Seneca V. Quite a lot to handle at times, especially when flying the more demanding approaches like NDBs with several stepdowns and so on. Amazing how sweaty your back gets even in winter when you have to hand-fly all the way down Quite fun, but one sure grows to appreciate the autopilot after a while

There's no point in pushing on, though, if you don't really really need to go somewhere, so your approach to IFR flying for recreational purposes sounds about right