PADI (and I assume the other agencies) are a bit of a pyramid scheme; part of their revenue comes from recruiting recreational divers to pay more money to "go pro" which usually means "pay for more expensive courses to help keep the whole thing going.."
Not that that's necessarily entirely bad, it just means you have to have non-financial reasons for doing the DM course. Although in my case, it was the least expensive way to spend most of a summer in the caribbean diving every day, and that's the reason I did it. It was mostly fun, and somewhat instructive. I don't regret it at all, but I never had any illusions about trying to make any money in the dive industry. The instructors were a mixed bag, a couple of winners and a few losers. Such is life!
