Seems to me like the week long course was required when the EES version first came out, because I think I tried to sign up for it when they first offered it (for free) and they wouldn't let me because I wasn't a reseller, just a consultant. Now that CRM is no longer optional, maybe they thought they had to dumb it down or they would have wiped out half what remaining MAS resellers they have left...
I don't know. I just know what Sage told me I still needed to take.