The drill of removing gear, surfacing without it, and returning to the bottom to get it was not part of all scuba instruction in the past, and almost all agencies that did include it removed it for safety reasons long ago. A few years ago an SSI instructor had her students at the University of Alabama doing the drill, even though it as not part of the SSI curriculum, and one of the students died of an air embolism he got during ascent. The drill has no specific practical value, since it is not something that is ever done on a scuba dive.
The harassment stuff was, to my knowledge, never part of the curriculum of any dive agency. It is mentioned in the history of NAUI written by founder Al Tillman as something they were surprised to see some instructors doing during the early days of NAUI. He clearly did not favor it, feeling the primary purpose and benefit was the amusement of the instructors. Over the years individual instructors have continued to do it without the blessing of their agencies. If an accident were to happen as a result and lead to a lawsuit, they would have a hard time responding to charges that it is unsafe, since they could not point to accepted agency practices as a justification.