I always get reminded of this when I see all the weird praise the 555 gets: https://www.electronicdesign.com/technologies/analog/article...

It's one of those poor/early designs like the 741 opamp that has since been superseded by much better chip designs but is thoroughly ingrained in hobbyist and EE101 classes to the point where people think it must be a good design because it's so venerated. It's meme driven really.

However, for educational and hobby use, eh whatever. If I was a professor and the curriculum called for 555 or 741 use I would thoroughly state to the students that A. these devices are historic and good teaching tools, however, in the real world their performance has been surpassed and you would use new designs. Maybe even present a few alternatives like the TL081 and what Pease mentioned for timing.