I can't answer the poll. I never took Fundies. I was DIR'ed through a different route. And then my life went on in different paths.
This poll was for some reason placed in the Basic Scuba Section rather then the DIR section. It is in a general section rather than one dealing exclusively with the agency known as GUE, the agency that teaches a class called Fundamentals, or Fundies. It must have a lot of general population divers wondering what the heck they are talking about. I'll try to help.
Fundies is a class that teaches a number of very fine skills and concepts. They are skills normally associated with technical diving. The course was originally intended to be a bridge course to take basic recreational divers to the place where they are ready for technical diving--caving diving in particular. It has been realized over the years that recreational divers can benefit from those skills. I can't argue that it is not a good course. I can point out, however, that not a single concept or skill taught in that course was created by its agency, GUE. I can point out, however, that not a single concept or skill taught in that course is taught exclusively by its agency, GUE. Incredibly enough, people who have never even heard of GUE or DIR have learned these skills somewhere else, even before GUE or DIR were invented.
I spent roughly three hours today in a pool teaching a segment of a class that has a content very similar to Fundies. It went well. The student learned a lot. He has never head of GUE. He has never heard of DIR. He has nonetheless learned the skills he was taught. It was a PADI course. My original course was TDI. You can learn these skills in a lot of different places--most of which do not have the ScubaBoard cheering section that some agencies have.