We dove with Amigos Del Mar back in 2011 for the local stuff. They were decent enough for the most part, but definitely remember the lackadaisical attitude. I recall their level of openness was a little on the cold side too. Seemed like it took about a week for them to open up to you personally; maybe cultural or something. Anyway, by the end of the trip we were feeling more of a sense of connection with them and, all-n-all, had a very memorable trip.
As for diving the outer atolls; we had to use one of their competitors due to ADM not having enough headcount on those days to make it worth their bother. The name of this other Op escapes me, but I believe the owner was either British or Australian, and their operational staff was mostly from other Caribbean countries. They were generally much friendlier and more professional out of the box.
When we arrived back at ADM the next day for our regular two-tanker, one of the boat captains asked what happened to us the day before. I told them we went out to dive the outer atolls with that other dive operator due to lack of availability with ADM. The boat captain paused and gave me this pretty serious look of disapproval, and then preceded to inform me that "...they are not from here; they are not locals". I got the sense that there was definitely an undercurrent of racial tension and/or inter-communal/cultural/nationalist animosity; not just between these two operators, but just in general. Like, these other groups were taking jobs and income opportunities away from those in the community they deemed more deserving. That was a bit of an eye-opener for me at the time, as I don't think I would have ever even noticed otherwise.
In light of today's politics, sadly it doesn't seem so surprising now.
