I mostly river dive, and have for decades. There are fascinating things happening in Oregon rivers, and I like the biology of these rivers. (I have one of my degrees in zoology.). Because I dive rivers, I use my snorkel while scuba diving almost every dive. I use scuba until I surface, then switch to my snorkel. I also use my snorkel as a mouth/teeth guard when exiting with heavy scuba gear so that as I’m crawling out on slippery algae and mud laden rocks, I don’t slip and fall flat on my face; the snorkel would help protect teeth and nose in this case.
Now, about the lowering of standards; this coincidentally happened as the dive tourist industry started being established. People were no longer diving locally, but were flying to exotic, remote areas to dive on live-aboards. As this happened, in my estimation, students stopped being “students” and became “customers” and “clientele.” As such, they demanded things, like less strenuous standards, not using snorkels (why use a snorkel with a dive boat right next to you and a Divemaster making sure you were happy?).
@boulderjohn even forgot how to put together his scuba gear while headed for a dive, as the Divemaster would always before do that for him. PADI and many other dive agencies responded with simpler courses for these divers who were going to do dive travel. Manufacturers lightened their gear; regulators were made lighter for the first stage, and the second stage went to plastic from metal. (The use of plastics had several other desirable effects, in that better molding could be done for air flow, and plastic did not have the corrosive potential that even chrome-plated brass had.)
The easier courses also opened another opportunity for dive agencies—more advanced/specialized courses. Dive agencies began to see their courses as commodities, things that could be divided up and sold piece by piece. After reassembly, you had a complete diver. But the basic scuba course only took you so far in this business plan, and you needed “advanced open water” instruction too, plus other types of speciality courses. This sold more courses, more shorter, easier to take courses. So dive instruction became a “business plan” for those agencies, instead of a set of instructional foundations. And, divers became ever increasingly dependent upon dive tourism to fulfill their diving dreams.
I have never been on a live-aboard dive boat, nor have I taken a dive travel boat to a reef for scuba diving. I dive locally, and that includes the Oregon coast, Puget Sound in Washington State, and Oregon rivers. I started out snorkeling, and used to snorkel to spear fish in the Pacific Ocean (when I was much, much younger). So I know the value of snorkeling, and like I said above, use a snorkel on nearly every dive.
I have seen a lot of changes in the dive industry, but I must say that not all of them have benefited the divers themselves. Some were to benefit the agencies (keep them afloat), some to benefit the manufacturers (BCDs now cost more than a regulator).
SeaRat