I guess I'm not a "tech" diver. I've taught deep courses, mix courses, decompression courses, been rather deep, published articles on tech diving, was an Editor for aquaCorps, own two rebreathers and two scoots, been quoted and indexed in books on tech diving, I was in the room when the term technical dicin was coined, I was program chair for the first two "Tek" conferences, but ... guess what? I never took a tech course. So what? Big woop.
But you do have credentials, don't you Mr Ego? Lots of credentials in scientific diving etc etc etc. You turn up at a boat...and you have something to validate yourself with.
You taught courses...same as taking them. You understand the programme...
Anyone can dive...any depth...any time. As long as they get away with it, then they feel they are 'qualified' to do that diving. As long as everything goes perfectly, then they are the perfect diver.
What OP '
Mr DIY Dive God' lacks though, is the formal training and reaction conditioning to get his ass out of trouble should something go wrong...and you don't learn that from 'getting by' on perfect dives.
Cards and course don't mean anything, being able to actually do it is what counts and most of the instructors I know who share your attiude about cards ... well ... usually they can't.
You have an amazing habit of generalising all instructors, whilst insulting the greater majority of professional divers...just to boost your own ego.
The diver must be qualified. Not necessarily 'certified'. However, apart from dinosaurs like yourself (ooops, I meant pioneers), most modern tech divers are the product of a formal training programme. That gives them qualification...then they gain experience. They qualification shapes their experience - it is the foundation on what they build.
Without 'qualification' then those divers (the op) may have pretty rotten 'foundations' at best. Who knows? Who cares? Only those stupid enough to trust their lives to him on a dive......
And a plastic card can do all that? Most of the technical divers I know would laugh at anyone who pulled out a certification card.
Really? Well, they must love living in their own little cliques then. Aside from a few 'major names' in the game... I am sure most of us need to show some credentials when buying helium away from home turf....
Taking the course likely demonstrates a lack of the right stuff needed to secure a good mentor which is the only way to actually get from here to there.
So...of the thousands of divers you taught (as stated above)...none of them demonstrated the right stuff?
Why do you train people....when you are not an advocate of training?
Hypocritical surely??
With luck and hard work sometimes a course will develop a diver to the point that can then secure a mentor, but it is not the course that made them a tech diver, the course just opened the door.
On this we do not disagree.