I'm not disagreeing with you on that, but the law of averages and human nature say that someone is going to be a lot more likely to put their heart and soul into a cert class if they are getting $500 a student than if they're getting $200 a student.
I doubt that. People generally will do the same regardless of money. Why put any more effort in when you can double your money for doing nothing?
Expensive certainly doesn't always mean better - quite often it just means ripped off.
Maybe if they're doing a calm, relaxed, shallow reef dive at some Caribbean resort. Say they do that while on a 2-week vacation
Thats 90%+ of divers.
, then go home to either one of our locales (which are known for adverse diving conditions even during the warm seasons) and decides they want to push the boundaries of OW certification.
There arent hordes of people dying as a result of this. I dont see it as a problem. NOTHING you do in warm clear waters in the way of training is going to prepare you for cold, murky, high current diving. The only way to learn is to actually dive there.