I haven't taken the course... but I think there's one big benefit (if you're working for an SEM firm):
#3 - Promote your business with Google's name recognition.
Being able to brag about your certification/partnership with Google is always a crowd pleaser at sales meetings. Even if you don't learn a thing, I'm willing to bet you'll get a return on that $1000+ by just closing a sale or two.
Now, if you're not an SEM vendor (ie, you're doing SEM for your own company in-house) I suppose there could be a nice benefit to taking the course... assuming, of course, that you learn $1000 worth of stuff you didn't know before.
Really drilling down into A/B/C testing and the buffet of other helpful tools that AdWords has, it could be a good class to take if you're new to AdWords. However, I'm willing to bet that it's not worth that much money to people who already know their way around AdWords very well.
But again, this is pure speculation on my part... I haven't taken the course
