this^^^
i took the course 3 months ago and this is exactly what they taught.

 

I don't think it is new thing. It is always good to have the bike in 1st gear when you are at stop if you ever have to move to avoid car etc. You are always in the gear to go. If you are in neutral, you have the time to put the bike in 1st gear before you can move out of way. So putting bike in first gear when coming to stop is probably a preparation of being in 1st gear while stop. If you didn't come to stop in 1st gear, you might forget that you are not in 1st gear and when you proceed to go, you might stall out.

When the wait at the stop is long, most people put it in neutral to give hand some rest.

 

Isn't it all about having the right RPMs? I don't seem to have any trouble getting into first, but I usually don't downshift to 1st unless I'm at a crawl anyway. I made a habit of counting my gears up and down as I hate getting caught at a stop sign or light in the wrong gear. I always dread shifting to first from neutral first thing in the morning. The extra RPM's from the choke causes the tranny to engage with a toothy "THUNK".

 

How long do you keep your choke on for? All I need is 15/20 seconds and I'm good to go but yeah, that clunk is horrible (even though I never engage first with the choke on). I used to count gears up and down but now I generally 'just know' even if you are already in first girl you can still step on the shifter and nothing strange will happen. I got this tick in which I step on the shifter several times to check if I'm first... little bit-o-compulsiveness.

Also, you can get into first at a much higher speed than a crawl if you blip it. It's just that the engine braking is quite hard if you don't feather the clutch. I had one instance in which I shifted down to first coming up fast to a roundabout and I didn't feather the clutch enough locking the rear for a split second.