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Yes, but a good essay does not necessarily require a month to write. A good two-page, five-paragraph essay can be written in two to three hours - time that could surely be spared for the purpose on even a busy person's schedule. Writing an essay in 25 minutes is illogical - it forces one to adapt a formula for pounding out a quick and often mediocre (not necessarily so because of a lack of ability, but rather because of the ridiculous circumstances it must be written under) essay. This deters the creativity which is needed in writing essays.
Perhaps the reason for only allowing 25 minutes for writing is to force students to keep the essays short to make it easier for the readers/graders of the essays... If this is the case, it is very sad indeed. To teach so many students to adapt a mechanical method of writing (that could affect their entire life's worth of writing) for the sake of a grader of one test would be awful indeed! I sure hope that this is not the case.
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The SAT essay is not creative writing, the vast majority of writing that most peope will do requires little to no creativity, it simply requires them to make a statement and back it up with a few concise points. At any rate, I've never met a teenager who was an amazing writer but couldn't do well under the time constraints, a person's writing ability will come through, even if it isn't as impressive, a great writer will almost always get a 6 unless they haven't been taught the five paragraph essay form, which thy should be anyway. A three hour essay session would lead to more problems than it would solve, fatigue would create poor writing in itself, and would be harder than they already are to get corrected. ?Would you really want to be the guy sitting all day reading pages long essays?
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Sure, it may show a person knows how to write
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There, you've said it, they're not looking for "true essay writing ability" they just want to judge your abiity to express and back up an idea in writing.
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Interestingly enough, the producers of the tests once claimed the tests were not coach-able, and are now selling "official" guides and etc. that promise to raise scores... Funny...
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That's because it's false, practice and some instruction obviously prepare you. Plus, guides bought by stressed out teenagers make money, which is what the company's ultimate aim is.