Only by people who have no experience with it.
NLP ("Neurolinguistic Programming", not Natural Language Processing) is pre-scientific, yes, but that's not the same as being a pseudoscience, and calling it such is a disservice.
We have pretty much discovered the operating system of the human mind. applying the principles and techniques discovered and systematized under the rubric of NLP one can do amazing things.
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It is strange that academic research psychologists seem to have trouble with it. But that's their problem, it doesn't change the fact that people all over the world are learning and using this stuff every day. If academic psychologists can't understand it that just makes them irrelevant, it doesn't change the facts.
Anecdotal evidence isn't evidence, it's anecdote. You're basing this all off what people are saying works for them. There's a strong possibility that having learned this gives them extra confidence/trying harder, which in tern leads them to improvements. It's like taking sugar pills telling someone it's amphetamine.
