Matt, a big waste of who's time exactly? Not the officer's, but yours.
Don't get me wrong, the report, and having it lodged against your registration helps, particularly when Police are following you, running your plates, and preparing to pull you over, but they are not stupid, and put plainly, engineers report or not, if they suspect that your car is too loud or may not meet the emissions standard, then they can issue you with a notice at their discretion.
Engineers reports have always been fairly easy to come by, and the old 'remove mods or detune to meet the standards and get the report then replace them' trick is something they are well aware of.
I think its important that others aren't reading this thread thinking that getting this done will guarantee defect immunity.