I have not seen this specific question addressed by Shearwater, but their design philosophy is well known and I've had a few conversations about their philosophy as it relates to other functions and features.It's great that all of you have your own opinions on the subject but I didn't ask for anyone's opinion. It wasn't a hypothetical question up for discussion. I'm asking for facts. If I wanted to hear immature, condescending insecurities, I would have turned on Jerry Springer. If you don't have the actual answer from Shearwater stay off my thread, please.
1) Simple is better, if the feature is not there it can't fail and it thus poses no risk of screwing up the more important computer functions - like providing you with reliable decompression information.
2) Shearwater does not believe in having the computer do or decide anything for the diver - it just conveys information to the diver and lets them make the decisions. For example if you end your dive on 100% O2, the computer obviously *knows* when you surfaced and after the surface interval it could *assume* you are starting dive 2, but it will not automatically switch the active gas from your deco gas to your back gas. It leaves that responsibility and control in your hands where it belongs.
In this regard audible alarms just add more complexity to provide dubious benefit to a diver who should be situationally aware enough not to need the alarm. If you do push the limits and do something that violates PO2, ceilings, etc, it will flash a warning and ask you to confirm it, but it won't lock you out of subsequent dives, tell you you can't do that or give you the finger and stop showing you deco information. That is again the way it should be per their philosophy.
Diver who like that philosophy buy Shearwaters, if you don't like their philosophy, buy something else.