Is aikido legit?

Lately, everyone is wondering if aikido is effective for self-defense? There are many reasons for this question. The main reason for this is because there is no sparring or any practical application in aikido. So can such a martial art be effective? Before answering, I have to tell a story. When I was younger, an older guy often attacked us in the street, then I trained aikido for several years, I knew that one day he would attack me too, and when that moment came, he began to threaten me and strangle me, at that moment I grabbed his arm and twisted him and threw him to the ground and he broke his arm then because he fell awkwardly, at that moment aikido helped me, but also my aikido instructor got beaten when he tried to use aikido in self-defense. So back to the answer, is aikido practiced in self-defense? In short, no, aikido has its values, but for self-defense it is dangerous, because if someone practices aikido and thinks he can defend himself, he can be killed. Aikido is a martial art as much as ballet or dance, any instructor who says that aikido is effective in self-defense is deceiving his students, some techniques may be used, but the whole art is useless. What aikido should do is to introduce practical testing of techniques, so that the one who defends has protective equipment and the one who attacks has the same, so that the attacks are realistic without choreography. When I asked my second instructor to bring the equipment and try it for real, he said that I don't respect aikido and that those techniques can kill, I asked him if he had killed someone with those techniques, he got mad and I just turned around and left and signed up for boxing. So, aikido is not practical for self-defense and until it introduces sparring or at least full contact real self-defense drills, then aikido will not be practical for self-defense. If you want to learn self-defense, avoid aikido.