I haven't met ITA for years and years. Cuisenaire and Colorfactor rods still have a use, but need to be used judicially, where needed. I find that looking at the proportions, rather than the colours, helps children who have a weak grasp of number relationships. And I always use number words, not colours. Research shows that at least some children do need the physical prompt of handling things to reinforce number sense, and apparently (this is my sister's field of work) even adults can need to revisit concrete expressions of mathematical concepts. I think the problem was, as you hinted, that things which were needed by some children, and at different times, were imposed on all, all the time.

If imposed on all, one usually finds that there are a lot of small log cabins, towers, seesaws and catapults about where one isn't, and all the lower value rods are oin top of the cupboards or behind the radiators!