Well you have been doing what I usually do, but with your own boat. Of course you can do whatever you want. But you probably know that if you are taking a charter, especially in the tropics, but of course in the U.S. and probably Canada too, some are gunna want to see AOW or even Deep certs. before they let you do that. You know, the liability thing.
Don't forget the many times you also read on Scubaboard about DMs and instructors who also suck and crash into reefs (haven't personally seen that myself).
Yeah I understand why they do it, but it still annoys me when I get rejected while an AOW that needs someone to put his gear together is totally fine. Fact is in destination diving most people only do a couple of dives a year. It was quite a shock to me to go from independant diving to the resort conga diving industry. I had one guy tell me dive planning is something you learn at the DM level...
Also seems crazy how shops are unwilling to take someone with OW and a bunch of logged dives to a 70' dive but are totally ok with taking a group of people that have never even looked at a computer to 135' on single tanks or into a cave.
I was told I was not allowed to wear gloves or carry a knife because I might be inclined to hack coral apart.... what?