Several comments:
1. On the OP's situation, the dive op were jerks. They deserved to be told off for multiple reasons. He was not being paid to act as a Rescue Diver. Rescue Diver is not a professional credential. He did what he could do. Clearly, the OP has gonads and was willing to tell them how it is.
2. On the OP's situation: There was going to be a third buddy regardless. It happens. That person had an AOW card and, the way some would advise, they might have been a Course Director (i.e., instructor trainer) unwilling to share that information. There's not much the dive op can do if the diver doesn't live up to their certification level. (Maybe do a checkout dive, but few dive ops do that unless a riskier dive is anticipated later.)
3. On telling highest certification level when asked: You do you, but I've never had a negative experience due to this. In fact, I've been given a lot more latitude to do my thing. And if asked to ACT in a professional capacity, well, I have gonads. I'd tell them no if I really wanted to do photography on a once-in-a-lifetime situation. (Though I dive without friends or family, so always insta-buddy and if they don't ask and just assign me a novice buddy, I'm fine with that. I was a novice once.) If it's a dive I've done before, I might agree and expect to be paid what they pay their DM's. Including a share of tips. (If I'm acting in a professional capacity, the cameras would stay on board.)
4. I'm in favor of "fuller" BCDs on entrance for multiple reasons. The boat diving I do for fun (not work) is in the tropics. It isn't something I do every day. I'm using rental tanks and weights for sure, and a BCD I don't use in cold water. From one year to the next I couldn't tell you how much air I really need to be just positively buoyant on an ocean of unknown salinity. Assuming I did a proper buddy check I know my air is on. I can think of a least one person who did a deliberate negative entry, air was off, and they died as their drysuit squeezed them. Mistakes happen, especially with newer divers and divers with limited recent experience. I'm not saying don't do negative entries, ever; there are situations where this is a good idea. But those are situations anything other than highly experienced divers should not get into.
5. On clearing ears quickly and descending, "as any experienced diver should be able to do." Nonsense. There was a time I thought like this. I can easily clear my ears and have done rapid descents to close to 40 m without issue. I never "got" folks who were experienced and couldn't do the same. I began to modify when I was teaching SCUBA early on and realized that small women in particular often had issues. Makes sense: Small person, narrower Eustachian tubes. And then one day I couldn't easily or quickly get to the bottom of the swimming pool. No clue what was going on with me physiologically that day, but it happens. Never happened since.
