As someone who works closely with an LDS, but who has a job and doesn't get paid by the dive shop let me throw in my experience.
All of the classes that I have sat in on for SSI and IANTD force students to learn the tables. If I am planning and executing a deco dive, I do it by the tables for EAN 28, EAN 32, or Air and by my time into the dive or rule of thirds (whichever comes first).
Our SSI open water students are not passed unless they know and understand what the tables are there for. They do their open water dives for certification by the tables.
This having been said, I have done several multi-level dives that would be impossible with tables (for example, descend to 120 ft for a minute or two and spend the rest of the dive at fifty or sixty foot along the reefs in Provo). I know this because I make a habit of figuring my letter groups at the end of my diving day to stay in practice. My recreational diving is by computer to maximize my wet time. And yes, I do keep tables if the computer breaks, but we can't go from one to the other on multi-level, repetitive diving without at least a 24 hour delay, anyways.
IMHO, if a diver has a grasp of why we use tables and what they mean, I find that it is normally to their benefit to use a computer. (And as I have already stated, I do not sell computers).
All of the classes that I have sat in on for SSI and IANTD force students to learn the tables. If I am planning and executing a deco dive, I do it by the tables for EAN 28, EAN 32, or Air and by my time into the dive or rule of thirds (whichever comes first).
Our SSI open water students are not passed unless they know and understand what the tables are there for. They do their open water dives for certification by the tables.
This having been said, I have done several multi-level dives that would be impossible with tables (for example, descend to 120 ft for a minute or two and spend the rest of the dive at fifty or sixty foot along the reefs in Provo). I know this because I make a habit of figuring my letter groups at the end of my diving day to stay in practice. My recreational diving is by computer to maximize my wet time. And yes, I do keep tables if the computer breaks, but we can't go from one to the other on multi-level, repetitive diving without at least a 24 hour delay, anyways.
IMHO, if a diver has a grasp of why we use tables and what they mean, I find that it is normally to their benefit to use a computer. (And as I have already stated, I do not sell computers).