I shot it from my duty rig which an ALS-only holster and open top magazine pouches. The only time I felt pressed for was the first stage.
I'd offer that officers should be able to keep rounds on the legal paper. If you miss the 7" circle every time, you're just down 10 points. If you lose 20 points for time, that's five seconds to add to the par times. That's 70% easily available and some rounds should be able to land in the 7" circle for some wiggle room.
This qual has two things going for it. First, it sets a very reasonable standard for performance for those who care. 80% seems like a reasonable goal for those with a little dedication. Second, it is a historical standard so it has credibility. People used to be held to these standards, with old guns and holsters - why can't you?
Regarding running larger groups, I'm not sure what larger means. When I run our quals on a shot timer, I call the stage & strings and then move from shooter to shooter. I don't brief everyone of them. For instance, ours starts at the three yard line with three rounds in three seconds. This is repeated twice. I walk up to a shooter, ask if they're ready, and then trigger the timer. Repeat for the second three rounds. Then I move to the next shooter. You can qualify a decent number of folks like this while maintaining high accountability for time.
If it's a lot of folks, the have two folks with timers. Start on on the far left and the second in the middle. Alternate "turns" and shift to the right after a shooter finishes.