Rob, I know you are good at this sidemount thing, I know you've been doing it for a long time, and I know a big part of what you do is true sidemount diving. That is great. I respect that, but I know that a lot of the sidemount divers won't do that, myself included. I learned from a guy who has been diving sidemount exclusively before you started diving and diving sidemount for the last 16 years. I took my cave/tech approach to regs and gas management from him. He has long hose on right tank, and he breathes down in thirds. Right, left, left, right until out. With new sidemount students he encourages them to switch every 200psi to establish muscle memory. When he dives, it's in thirds, it makes sense to me, I don't dive in places where one reg would fail, and even at that point, I would have enough for me to get out. At no point am I left without a full third of my total gas supply in one tank on the way in. Half of sidemount is being truly independent and not needing extra gas. By not switching, I am at no more risk of not having a working regulator than a backmount diver who stays on his long hose. If I needed it, he may not have a working octo and we're buddy breathing. If I was doing true sidemount, I'd probably switch every few hundred psi, but I wouldn't be diving with a buddy.
I took my open water configuration from what I had seen with the videos that Lamar posted on different reg configurations for different types of diving. It makes sense to me, and I don't dive a long hose in open water either. It's a hassle. Does it make OOA situations more uncomfortable, yes, do I care, not particularly, do my buddies, not at all. It's talked about before hand.