Drifting is definately fun and has grown to be a street scene sort of thing. But it really is an advantage in real racing. The point isn't to increase speed but to keep you from slowing down as much for turns. The best way to accelerate is to not decelerate in the first place.

When you drift you keep the nose of the car pointed in the direction you need to go so that when your tires regrip the road you're able to accelerate at full throttle sooner and applying full throttle takes less time because you're already there.

If what you're saying is true, it sounds like the true intention of drifting has been lost and replaced with "just for show".
Thats too bad because it really is advantageous.

If my intention was to just have fun drifting a RC car, PVC wheels seems fine, but if your intention is to race, I'd rather mimic real cars and move the engine up front, beef up the engine and use a LSD in the rear. Now if there's really just not enough weight to the car to do this, then it sounds like drifting has no advantage in racing RC cars and it should be skipped all together.