I was very much agreeing with you. It is definitely not true.
Sadly, in both dive shops for which I worked, absolutely no one working the retail floor had any experience or knowledge in this area, and they all saw BP/Ws as tech equipment that was not suitable for recreational divers. The second shop would not even have any such equipment in the shop, ready for sale, even though they were offering tech instruction (through me). If one of my students wanted to get a BP/W, they would have to order it, and those orders took forever to be filled. Students learned to order through online shops so they could get it in a couple of days. Then the shop was mad, telling me that all my students were buying their gear online instead of through the shop.