My 6 month old is currently learning a whole host of things, and we are doing repetition and watching his growth -- so no disagreement on the premise that these things are good. But we are also making great pains to ensure that he is playing, is always happy doing new things, and doesn't have to continue if he gets overwhelmed and/or bored. We do this because the mentality of someone when learning is a huge factor in what they get out of the activity.
I had the impression that the current push against testing and repetition is because it ended up with children hyper-focussed on "passing the test" skills but not spending the time to question things too deeply and gain that understanding that actually helps the workforce (like Feynman noticed in Brazil).