Your perception of what constitutes a "dive resort" would likely match with mine.
Unfortunately, not everyone's criteria are the same. Many folks love their trips to resorts that have diving, yet somehow they know they went to a "dive resort".
As these lists are compiled, usually by a commercial media outlet (magazine, etc), there is always a bias. It can be as obvious as direct match to their advertisers, or insidious as most every magazine has broadened the scope of their "dive vacation experience". Witness the recent monthly dive magazine's "Top 100 Reasons to Love the Caribbean". Well over 1/3 the "reasons" had absolutely nothing to do with diving in any way.
Quite likely the market for such wonderful, yet "throwback" dive resorts in your list is dwindling rapidly. Today's vacationers so often post here on ScubaBoard looking for "great diving with big fish and colorful reefs and we want to take a few days off to play golf". Many wind up in Cozumel.
As more and more vacations become like any given professional sporting event- as a legitimate reason to imbibe heavily of adult beverages, the need for "dive resorts" is less and less. Add to this the later trend of taking your kids along on your dive trip- something no-one would have contemplated as late as 1995, the entire package description has changed.
The resorts you mention in your list had their birth in the days when SCUBA was something done by truly dedicated adventurous souls who traveled great distances to do it. (In the 1970's, Caman was still pretty remote) If "the wives" came along, it was unlikely they even went diving. It was two dives a day with steel tanks and then maybe a beer fueled bikini contest around a campfire.
Now we need day care for the children, golf courses, jungle canopy zip-lines, and day spas for the female of the party. This is why cruise ship divers have become so prevalent.
If you think about it, if all there were was cruise ships and no week-long tourist visits to our favorite islands, the islands would still be well preserved. Day visits by pod people cause little damage. It's us "dive trip" people that cause the most environmental damage, what with our garbage, electricity and water usage, the siltation caused by building our rooms, etc.
Because of the current state of affairs of the airlines, there are few "rocks" in the Ocean that we can get to any more where a real, live "dive resort" might be able to take a swing and make a go of it.
As you look at the places the Europeans and Asians rave about, understand that many people from those groups are thrilled with one or two dives and then want to sunbathe or fish... even off of what is operated as a liveabaord in the Red Sea or Maldives. This will become glaringly apparent if they mix the passengers with such folks and us NorthAmericans. Talk about two groups at cross purposes! I have been on a boatful of Brits on the red Sea, and while I was forced to solo night dive every night, they were already drinking heavily. In the Maldives, the resorts are simply not "dive resorts", they are resorts which offer some diving. You will see the same effect all through the South Pacific where non-North Americans go to vacation and dive. Do not expect a maximum bottom time to be easy.
If you were asking for operational and functioning resorts to add to that list?
Manta Lodge, Speyside Tobago
Riding Rock, San Salvador Bahamas
Hotel Atlantis, Sabang Beach (near Puerto Galera), Philippines
