The OP's wants are described:
OP -- Honestly, any decent instructor can probably help you reach these goals, BUT that really depends on how you define them.
For example, to pick the "big one" -- buoyancy control -- what is it? What do YOU mean when you say you want to perfect your buoyancy control? To some people it means being able to descend, ascend and "dive" while more or less staying where you want in the water column. To a UTD Essentials/GUE Fundamentals student, it means being able to do "the basic 5" while maintaining a "window" of 3 (or 5?) feet. To a Full Cave diver, it may mean being able to do valve, mask off and other drills while maintaining a 12 inch window. And to a really solid photographer, it may mean being able to photograph a nudibranch, on a silty bottom without raising a single speck of silt.
I'm quite sure that many scuba instructors can show you the way to the first level -- quite frankly not that many can get you to the second -- and even fewer to the last two. How good do you want to be? What level of control will be good enough for you?
Nitrox -- anyone can show you how to analyze a tank, set your computer and most instructors can show you how to run Nitrox tables and air equivalencies. If that is all you want, spin a dial and pick whoever is cheapest. If, however, you want more than that, perhaps some insight into the "rest of the story" ask around and find an instructor who is also a technical diver and is willing to do more than the bare minimum. They are around (and I know a few).
The rest of the list? Really, as your experience grows, the rest will sort of come naturally. Go ahead and take an Advanced Open Water Class but query your prospective instructor about what she is going to do and how much beyond the book is she going to go? Demand more and you'll get more.
What people have written about diving in Puget Sound is true. IF you learn to dive here and learn how to maintain control of yourself and your teammates while diving here, you'll be a solid diver just about any place you'll go. It is harder to dive well here than in "Gin clear water, the temperature of warm p***" (to steal a line). IF you really want to become a strong, solid diver, figure out what you want your level of competence to be, find an instructor or instructor cadre that will teach to that level and then take the instruction and work at it.
For what it's worth, I'm an independent PADI instructor on the Eastside and am friends with several other like minded instructors in Seattle, south of Seattle, north of Seattle and also on the Eastside representing six (?) different agencies. If you'd like some frank advice, PM me. (BTW, I'm 65, retired and at one time thought I was "gainfully unemployed" but now, not so sure!)
