In terms of safety, I was taught (and I did always teach) that a planned dive with short deco is much safer than a no-plans NDL dive "at the edge" of NDL.
In the seventies, the recreational limits were 50m, with air, with a buddy, and deco. And no more than two dives per day.
Then rules changed, and what we did consider recreational 40 years ago is now considered technical.
But I still think that planning properly a dive to, say, 40-45 meters, and being equipped for 15-minutes of deco stops is definitely much safer than going to the same depth with the idea, possibly wrong, to be able to stay in no-deco limits.
When a small trouble occurs, you find yourself suddenly out of NDL, and you are not equipped and set up for doing proper deco stops.
Much better and safer to be trained, equipped and planned for the stops.
In the seventies, the recreational limits were 50m, with air, with a buddy, and deco. And no more than two dives per day.
Then rules changed, and what we did consider recreational 40 years ago is now considered technical.
But I still think that planning properly a dive to, say, 40-45 meters, and being equipped for 15-minutes of deco stops is definitely much safer than going to the same depth with the idea, possibly wrong, to be able to stay in no-deco limits.
When a small trouble occurs, you find yourself suddenly out of NDL, and you are not equipped and set up for doing proper deco stops.
Much better and safer to be trained, equipped and planned for the stops.