Agreed, a pony is a back up. Nothing more. Your back up in most cases but it also does not take the place of an octo when diving with others. The last thing I want to do is hand a stressed diver a piece of gear they may not be familiar with. I'd rather hand them my primary or octo depending on the configuration and use the pony myself if I see the need to. If it comes down to it we can buddy breathe from the pony if they suck the main dry. Which should never happen since these are OW dives done with no overhead obstructions.
I was on the droid so typing is a bit harder but as for my comment on the AIR2 and similar devices. I don't like em, don't see any problem they really solve (in fact I see them creating more), do not improve anything, and add to complexity in rescues for people not familiar with them. I have taught rescue classes and workshops and usually include a victim in one of them just because there are those who have not seen them.
In those scenarios I have had rescuers who could not decide what button to push as they are not standardized. If you have time to do a pre dive check with someone that has it that's one thing. But what if the distressed diver is not your buddy? Or you have one and the person who may have to help you has not seen one? Same with the elevator lever gimmicks.
When deciding on gear one of the key factors I go bye and teach is that the gear must be configured to easily allow for self rescue and rescue by others. Those others could be anyone - not just your buddy. SO if the SHTF and you are in trouble do you really want gear that someone is going to have to take extra time to figure out how to work?
Remembering that too many OW divers today are clueless when it comes to aiding someone else. Most agencies no longer teach rescue skills in the OW class. Some of the better ones still do. In the name of expediency and getting them in the water as fast as possible critical skills such as rescue and proper gear configurations are left out.
Don't be the person I was trying to figure out on my own how to rig and sling a pony because the shop I was using at the time did not want to teach that. They wanted to sell me some kind of bracket that mounted on the main tank. I had to get with guys that were actually using stages and deco bottles to see how things should be done. It's why I include that knowledge in my Advanced classes. Find an instructor or mentor who dives tech. Don't listen to recreational DM's and instructors who don't know how to properly set up a pony or the right way to use it.
