This was my thought, I was never in distress, and I thought the situation was not outside of my comfort zone. I would take a similar course of action should things happen like this again. With that, I now know how signal if I was ok, but wanted to be picked up by the boat.
I would add, my underwater swim was not enjoyable per say... simply because the viz was poor, and I was more focused on getting back to the boat...
As I said, it depends on the situation, and experience will help you to decide what is the best solution for you.
It has happened to me so many time, in good conditions, as well as in the worst condition ever.
And it will happen again, I know.
I think the key point here is to let the boat know where you are (SMB, deployed, always) and that you are ok (a big ok with both of your arm).
Then you can start to swim towards the boat, if you get too tired, just let the boat know and they will pick you up.
With a nice SMB you can actually use it as an extra floating device to rest on it.
I have the Hollis and when it's all inflated, you can actually have a nap on it
Hollis SMB Orange
Alternatively, you can also use the 2 SMB system: the orange one and the yellow one.
Orange one means "Hey, I'm here, and I'm fine..."
The yellow one means "Hey, I'm here and I'm
not fine: come and pick me up."
You can dive with both of them, and depending on the situation, you can choose your colour.
Just check first with the crew that they actually know the difference between the two colours...