Yes there are currently delays. There may just be lots of people requesting ATIP at the moment or a number of other reasons. Delays were in place before Afghanistan.
All queries are legitimate, even those made 'out of curiosity'. If IRCC made the info that people are requesting easier to access there would be no need for such queries in the first place. The only motive of those discouraging such queries would be that it reflects badly on the IRCC, as an increase in such requests results in more complaints to the Information Commissioner of Canada's office which in turn would prompt the latter to start an investigation. This, in fact, has already happened:
