Verbs - active, passive and 'nominalised'

I was Googling around to see what was being said about the use of active verbs, as one does on a quiet night after a few glasses of wine, and was gobsmacked to see the number of university sites defending passive verbs. Even worse, the authors were advising students, for some purposes, to remove all personal pronouns, as this was more formal and academic.

Are there other universities doing this? Are schools still teaching this style? I am horrified to think so, but my experience with adult, tertiary educated writers seems to bear this out. I have seen non-critical readers accept this formal style, and be impressed with the learnedness of the character that wrote the article. On the other hand, I have heard critical readers immediately ask "Who did it? What did they actually do? And who or what did they affect?"

So, is there a case for not using personal pronouns, and a case for not using active verbs? If there is, then it needs to be made each time it happens.

How about this from an agricultural show booklet - all the capitals, line breaks and punctuation (or lack of) are from the booklet:
"Directions for Public access to Showground Office prior to Woolorama
Entry from Kitchener Street at Pony Club entrance into showgrounds.
Drive into trotting track and park in front of Recreation Centre."

Could this be "You can reach the showground office before Woolorama by entering the Kitchener Street Pony Club entrance, driving onto the trotting track and parking in front of the Recreation Centre. The office is on the left of the Recreation Centre looking from the trotting track."

I deduced that last part from the map, which did not have Kitchener Street or the trotting track marked.