Do you teach a "normal" class? I am serious. The OW dive classes I see are so incredibly abbreviated that it is amazing that the students can master ANY gear.
I honestly think that trying to show a wide variety of gear types would be impractical and quickly reach diminishing marginal return, when applied in the current typical training setting. THAT is why I worry that presenting an overwhelming range of increasingly more complex gear configurations and options, might become noise.
All too many of OW students can barely work the BC, struggle with a mask clear and some can barely use fins in an efficient manner..
If you are running classes that far exceed the minimum requirements in time and you have the ability to do extensive "enrichment of the classes", then I think it is great..
It depends on what you consider normal and what you consider minimum standards to be. My normal class is 16 hours classrom and 16 hours pool spread out over 6-8 weeks. Normal includes buddy breathing, rescue skills, and things like the bailout and doff and don. These are normal under the standards of my agency. Anything less is abnormal and does not meet agency standards. Plus I add to those and have my own standards students must meet. ie- All basic skills horizontal and in midwater by the end of scuba session 2 while swimming, students do their own weight checks from session 3 on every class, students adjust weights as necessary in pool and on OW checkouts. Normal may be the wrong term to use when asking about classes taught by different instructors from different agencies in different parts of the country. A student of mine who could not manage buoyancy, trim, air shares,etc would not be going to OW.