Do the dive companies that leave the nearby pier then stop at the hotel piers on the way to dive sites? If so, I do see the advantage of staying further south (at the expense of being further away from town). Once I get on the boat I'm ready to dive, and don't necessarily look forward to making several stops at various piers picking others up.
For a meaningful impact on short, ready to dive when you get on boat diving, I think you'd have to stay far south at one of the AIs. If you dive with the house op there will be no other pick-ups and the trip to the first dive will be quite short. Second site may take a little longer to get to, but depending on the AI, you might SI back at the resort and not be stuck on the big boat, which some people like.
If you're trying to avoid being far south, using the hotel's/resort's in-house dive op at a place closer to town would also help avoid pick-ups, but the trip to the 1st dive will be longer. Much, much longer if the house dive op uses a big boat.
Another "Goldilocks" type option would be either Casa del Mar, Park Royal, El Cid la Cieba or my personal favorite, Village Tan Kah. I've never stayed there, but for the right people/situation I would loudly sing its' praises. All four of these places are just north of the south cruise ship pier. On the other side of that pier is the caleta and the start of the Marine Park. There are conveniences to the location which include shore diving, a few places to eat if you're not staying AI, the taxi fare is around 100 pesos and there is a convenience store close if you need something. It's closer to the dive sites than Blue Angel, but negligibly less. I wouldn't chose any of those places over Blue Angel based on distance from the dive sites, but it sounds like Blue Angel is seems pricey to you.
I have stayed at Casa del Mar many times. The Goldilocks feature to that place is that it splits the difference, imo, between a big sprawling resort and a hotel. Restaurant, swimming pool, hot tub, nice grounds, tennis court that I've only seen used for a birthday party for what appeared to be a local kid, sea-wall beach with lounge chairs and little palapas for shade, dock that you don't have to pay to be picked up from, dive lockers and rinse tanks on the doc, etc. If you're diving, you'll absolutely want a room with a patio or balcony.