Sitting here way down south (New Orleans), and looking forward to a 2-tank Saturday boat dive off Orange Beach/Pensacola on Saturday and am advised surface about 82, and about 72 below the thermocline, I think New England dives should count double. Cold, vis not great, creatures not quite as colorful, just more challenging in general. I've found in a few dives off the north side of the Cape --Sandwich, Barnstable, Hyannis, Gloucester (the Chester Poling, a great dive and a piece of history, especially rescue history), Fort Wetherill, Woods Hole, couple others, that it's not an "easy" fun dive, it's work. Rewarding sure, but work.
I think a cold 30-foot dive in 15-foot visibility, is more challenging than say a warm 95' dive in the Gulf (Flower Garden Banks NMS, a wonderful destination way offshoreTexas).
One of my first dives after cert, Sandwich from a boat, instabuddy decided not to splash so I did it alone, wolfed down air, managed to find the boat again and surfaced after a big 16 minutes (my realistic agenda for that little solo dive was "Don't get yourself killed, and try to finish back at the boat and not lost", affirmative on both counts).
Back on the boat, one of the gung-ho divers I never caught up with underwater, told me, "Dude, you just dived the friggin NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN!" That actually made me feel better. A bit like broccoli--not exactly fun, but good for you, your Mom would be proud ;-)