Let me start with congrats on being really close to MSD. It can take time and effort to reach this rating, especially if you take it seriously and put in real work to improve your diving. I am happy when people get all excited about reaching MSD because it means they are out there having fun and diving. I feel like we as a community should be getting excited with people when they are excited about an achievement in scuba, even if we think the program wasn't worth the cost. Bringing positivity to the community and encouraging new divers to keep on diving should be our goal here.
I think personally my issue with the PADI MSD is not with a lack of value in the courses/time you take to get there, it is the value in the actual MSD card/cert itself. Taking the 5 individual specialties can be very valuable, especially for a newer diver that maybe isn't so great at self motivation or at finding experienced buddies to dive with and get feedback from. CAN be. As is normally the consensus around here, it is mostly dependent on the instructor you choose and how much work and effort you put into the courses. You CAN just skate through, doing the bare minimum with an instructor that is just pushing out certs. Or, you could have picked an instructor that pushes you, expects a lot, and gives you information and feedback beyond the bare minimum check boxes for the courses. The Rescue Diver course is also a pretty valuable course, especially with a great instructor. The 50 dives required are also valuable, as we can probably agree that time actually diving and figuring things out in varying conditions is what makes you a better diver.
So you have done the 5 specialties, rescue, and 50+ dives. That is absolutely valuable and fantastic. But, the next step is to pay ~$75 to actually "earn" this rating. Okay, so what is paying money getting you? A title. That's it. You are gaining no additional experience or value beyond being able to show a Master Scuba Diver card. Two divers with the exact same experience and courses can exist, one a MSD and one not, all because of a $75 fee. I agree with the people that say that MSD should have a skills check or written test to go along with that application fee to really make it "earned" and not just "paid for." If there isn't a test or check, then it should be "earned" once all the min requirements are met, and not charge some stupidly high fee just to get a card. I get in comparison to the rest of scuba diving, $75 isn't much. But some of us ARE on a budget and that $75 could be the difference between getting some much needed gear or not.
Now, a slightly alternate opinion. "Having the MSD card makes me feel good, happy, and I feel proud that I put all that time/effort into taking these courses." Okay, I can see that. People pay that much + some to get frames and displays for certifications/degrees/etc that they have earned. They earned the recognition without needing to pay that fee for the fancy frame. But the fancy frame makes them feel good. I guess I view the MSD like a fancy picture frame. You want to buy that nice frame? Go for it! But keep in mind that people may view you hanging that frame in public view as "stuck on yourself" or something similar.
I have two actual concerns for the MSD rating. One: Organizations see people spending money while not actually gaining anything. They decide "hey, we can make even MORE money off similar things," and start adding extra weird **** that doesn't add value to the scuba community and just costs more money. Two: inexperienced divers may either have this rating or be buddied with someone that does and think "wow, this diver (or "I am") super experienced and I can do anything [with them]." This could be potentially dangerous. Yes, divers should realistically know their own limits and they should be realistic about their buddy's experience, but do we really need to make it more difficult by shoving in a rating called "master" that is not actually a master of anything?
I say this all as someone that does have the Master Scuba Diver rating myself. For whatever ridiculous reason, an organization I was part of required it to be a released diver, to function as part of the team on an incident and not just be an "in-training" member. I think they just needed to pick a rating that they could put in the SOPs so that there was SOMETHING in the SOPs. I personally found zero value in having the actual rating, but I did find value in some of the courses I had to take to get there. I took my specialties with a variety of instructors and shops, and I found some of them to be fantastic (and my diving significantly improved) and some of them to be an absolute s*** show that I would have been irritated to waste the money on (however it was not my money being spent, so I had a positive experience through it as "diving I don't have to pay for).
EDIT: To speak to the "only show the AOW/Nitrox for liability reasons" post... I can see only showing those because those are realistically the only ones you NEED to show to do the dives, so why be a show off. But, as far as liability goes, I imagine if there is an incident on a dive that you are a part of, or on a boat you are on, the hoards of lawyers will happily pull up the names and ratings of every single person on that boat, even if you didn't flash anything above OW on the boat. It is VERY easy to look up diver ratings, so you aren't hiding any of that from the lawyers.
