I'm going to refocus the debate, and I think I'm going to make you howl...
In France and Belgium (and maybe elsewhere), divers are trained to dive autonomously (without any DM) or supervised (with the equivalent of a DM) to 60m on air.
And, of course, with mandatory decompression stops
At this depth, nitrox deco tanks is not mandatory, although it's strongly recommended, and requires specific training if the diver wishes to use them.
I'm not judging whether it's good or bad, it's a fact !
Diving to 60 meters has been around for a very long time.
In France, we have a diving law (we love laws ...).
In the 80s, the law allowed diving up to 80m with air.
Since 1998, the limit has been 60m in air.
The law was amended in 2012 to maintain this depth.
Over the years, I don't know if the accident rate has been higher than in other diving schools or country.
No study to date has been able to demonstrate this.
In France, we know that most of the accidents take place in the 30-40m zone, as this is the most commonly zone practised here.
But no one knows the distribution of depth-related accidents in relation to the number of dives per depth.
For my own, I no longer use air to dive to 60m, I dived for over 10 years on trimix open circuit from 50m before using a rebreather for 6 years with trimix certification up to 120m.
But as an instructor, I and my instructor friends, always train divers to be as efficient as possible up to 60m on air. We spend a lot of time working on procedures, equipment and training underwater, explaining that depth is not a goal but a planning or limiting factor.
And we insist that divers use a nitrox deco tank when they dive beyond 40m.
Or even that they go on to trimix training.
Why do I continue to train divers at 60m with air when I don't do it myself any more?
Because this type of diving is approved in France and elsewhere (in Egypt, for example, with a nitrox deco block) and I'd rather these divers be well trained (I'd like to think they are with me) than be trained any old way by others.