carpediemracing 

I think it's a valid thing if you're dealing with Cat 5s who need to finish races. With a placing it's easy to prove you finished. Without it it's much harder. This is sort of invalid if the rider in question got lapped 7 times and wants to claim that as a finish (which has happened to me).

Also it's a good check - as a promoter if we have someone in 6th and in 46th then we made a mistake.
*edit or we have someone that jumped in the wrong race, which has also happened (since if we can't read the leading hundred # it's okay because we use one set of numbers per race).

For racers it's good because it typically confirms what they already thought (for experienced racers) and teaches them how optimistic they are (for inexperienced racers). It also sort of validates the places up front, i.e. if they got me okay in 47th place then they probably got the other ones pretty well also.

I do doubt that coaches place importance in places outside the very front, even if dealing with a Cat 5 that's just starting out. There's the win, in the hunt, and out of it. Until you're in the hunt you're out of it - 30th or 40th isn't really significant, which is the point that ES was trying to make.

I do think that times are significant in timed or road race type events. To finish in the front group versus 3 minutes down, or to finish 3 minutes down versus 15 minutes down, that's sort of significant, if you take into account the groups etc. It's better to be 3 min down and solo ahead of the field than 1 minute down but in the middle of the field (obviously in different races but the point is that finishing ahead of the field is better than in the field in this example).