Some of these academies besides training individual civilian self-defenders can also provide vocational training. Some of them specifically advertise LE and Military training and classes exclusive to those disciplines. But we shouldn't think that LE and Military are the only vocations that demand protective, defensive and combative skills using firearms. There is a substantial demand for the skills these schools teach from people that work in private security and executive protection. While states often have fairly low training criteria for a "Mall Security Guard" to carry an exposed firearm, there are civilian jobs that go far above and beyond that. There's also people that work what might seem like mundane and un-glamorous jobs like armored truck driver, convenience store owner, or mall jewelry store manager that feel like it's worth investing in more than just a standard 8 hour state permit class. Then there's bail bond recovery agents (bounty hunters) and on and on...
Civilian contractors that work internationally (like Academi for example) are more likely to recruit government-trained personnel and they have their own training facilities. Their employees might not be in the beginner classes, but I sort of doubt that these schools other classes are of no interest at all. On the far opposite end of the skill spectrum, what about a church that is wanting to put together a security team or add active-shooter response skills to their existing security team. While there are books they can buy from Amazon, it's reasonable that an executive pastor that is running a church with 400 employees and a $30 million annual budget is going to decide the security team needs to do more than read a do-it-yourself book about church security. Gunsite among others have classes specifically for that. Obviously, Gunsite can't teach them everything they need to know for every aspect of their job, but it's a good start for basic weapons handling skills and developing active shooter response doctrine. A lot of smaller churches' security teams are all-volunteer, but that doesn't make their training just a hobby.
A friend of mine is ex-USMC and when he got out of the corps, he started working security for a local billionaire. This guy's net worth is a little more than Donald Trump's but he's a lot lower profile. Still, with more than a few billion dollars this guy cannot just have his daughter at school with everybody else's kids and not have to think about the possibility of somebody kidnapping her for a million dollar ransom. Besides that he has his own security to be concerned with whether he's at home, at his office, or traveling the world on his private jet, and besides that, also the security of his many properties and businesses. My friend ended up graduating college and taking a different career path, but one can imagine his former employer has a demand for a skill set that goes beyond reading a book from eBay about how to choose a pistol and a laser sight. And he is certainly not the only high net worth individual or corporate officer that is looking for executive protection agents that have more weapons skills than what come out of reading a book. The curriculum at small-arms academies like Gunsite or Thunder Ranch certainly don't include all the specialized skills in first aide, emergency medicine, evasive driving, and empty-hand combatives that such agents are expected to possess, but where else would they go for the weapons skills? Most experts agree that these are perishable skills and just because a dude was SpecOps or a government contractor 10 years ago doesn't mean they don't need to keep those skills current. They're not likely to join you in the "101" class, but it would be foolish to think the advanced classes are just full of mall ninjas and gentlemen shooters with costly custom 1911's and plenty of disposable income left-over for a tactical-skills vacation.
Then there's an entirely different class of vocational trainee: the myriad people involved in the gun culture press and journalism. They write magazine articles, publish books, online blogs, websites, produce gun review or entertainment videos. Maybe they just own a big gun store and range and they host events. It seems reasonable that any of these people would be willing to invest in acquiring a little more than do-it-yourself skills. Whether they run a business, publish an online blog, or produce product review videos, I'm sure they'd like to be able to demonstrate a skill level that doesn't embarrass them in front of their audience. They may be primarily media people with careers and professional skills in media, but with an interest and aptitude that draws them to produce media around the gun industry and culture. Their audience doesn't demand they're all IPSC champions or former Navy Seals. People want quality media: entertaining and informative video, well-written articles, or just a well-run gun store and range. But the professionals that deliver that might want more than beginner skills with the guns.
There's no reason to belittle the schools that can teach people meaningful skills that can absolutely, certainly be useful to them. The skills are not just useful on a contingency basis in case of some improbable incident. They are basic necessities for many people's vocations where they cannot practically expect acceptance, employment or success without them.