Maybe the crux of the issue here is that the 'Discover Tec' and other PADI tech 'initiatives' represents the first step in a very slippery slope of recreational mindset migrating into the technical diving community.
That could be good or bad depending upon how you look at it.
When I started with tech, the instructor, who was also a PADI instructor, said in almost these exact words, "This isn't PADI. We don't hold our hand in tech training."
What he meant was that he skipped that silly PADI stuff, like explaining how to do a skill, demonstrating a skill, allowing practice, etc. He went right for OW evaluation, including complicating factors on the first try. This would be followed by a lot of yelling at you when you did it wrong. That built toughness! That made you see how important things were! That made you realize you were a lowly failure of a diver you were and how unworthy you were! That, he believed, was the essence and beauty of tech instruction.
Example: my buddy and I were told we were going to be evaluated on deco bottle passing. We had never done this before. We were not told how to do it. We were not shown how to do it. We were just told that at the end of the next dive we would have to do a bottle pass using AL 80s during the ascent. The ascent line was placed immediately next to a wall covered with fine silt, which we knew darn well we were absolutely not to disturb. I was put OOA during the dive, so I was sharing off my buddy's long hose as we ascended doing simulated deco stops next to that silt wall. My buddy was instructed to pass his AL 80 to me so that I could add it to the AL 80 I was already carrying, both under my left arm. I have to admit it did not go all that well. For one thing, I accidentally clipped the bottom clip to the other tank's bottom clip instead of the D-ring. That image was the source of much derision during the film study.
Call me a wimp, but at that point I would have preferred some of that PADI recreational hand holding.
