Dan, I appreciate what you are saying but. Lots of people already Dive consoles with their Air contents, depth gauge and even compass on them (Mine is just contents as a back up) Rather than advising no-one to have a console for the reasons you point out, surely it would be better to advise that a console is properly stowed during a dive so it's easily readable but doesn't drag all over the place?
Sorry, I tend to go "over the top" with some of my reactions on some types of questions.
The console may do the job for a diver that will NEVER want to be close to the bottom--and this may as well be divers using the jacket style BC's that have a lot hanging on them in the frontal area as well.
The kind of diving we do in south florida, will often put on on a coral bottom, or on a wreck, literally 6 inches off the bottom, in order to escape the effects of a strong current. A diver 3 feet off the bottom in the same area, gets blown away like a leaf in the wind. A diver that is totally flat horizontal, in low back back inflate or bp/wing style bc, with NO hoses or consoles hanging ( which IS the way these BC's are meant to be configured) , can get very close to the bottom, and NOT be snagged by things on the bottom....not be damaging the bottom or silting it.
The console is far more frequently found with the big bulky jacket style BC's, and very often, the console is on the end of a long hose, and is constantly dragging well below the diver. As you suggest, this would be much better if clipped off, but the whole issue of this type of jacket and console combo usually shows a diver that really can't get very close to the bottom without hooking on to things, and getting snagged on the bottom.
[video=youtube_share;dgdabfvr2B0]http://youtu.be/dgdabfvr2B0[/video]
If you start this video about 40 seconds into it, you will see a dive class that exemplifies everything bad about consoles, jacket bc's, and bad instructors that teach students on their knees( due to defective instruction skills or desire to run high volume for profit over quality of instruction) Later in the video, you see the problem with the octos and the consoles...
About 5 minutes in to this, you can see how the students wearing jacket BC's tend to swim at a near 45 degree angle--head up, feet down, so that their feet are constantly dropping down and often hitting the sand, even though their heads are several feet up above the bottom--and they feel like they are swimming well up above the bottom--and not even thinking about possibly hitting the bottom with their feet. This is called TRIM....when you are near the bottom, the diver should be flat horizontal ( as in the 2nd video below this). While it is possible for a jacket BC diver to have absolutely PERFECT TRIM, with some body types, this can become hard to accomplish, as the jacket style is not nearly as customizable for weighting and trim as the bp/wing styles are....And...even if you can get the perfect trim out of the jacket ( like good instructors will show with a jacket BC), you still have lots hanging down on your chest and torso area that sticks out and can/will snag the bottom--far more so than the MUCH CLEANER chest and torso bottom of the bp/wing or a good back inflate bc.
[video=youtube_share;kWrlXJ_EL_k]http://youtu.be/kWrlXJ_EL_k[/video]
In this video, my friend Errol is wearing a BP/wing style bc....while he happens to be using doubles, had he been wearing his single tank version of this for the recreational dive, he would have looked identical throughout the video, but with a narrower and smaller wing, and just one tank
*** Note how close Errol swims next to the bottom, without silting the delicate muck or hydroid environments. This skill and gear configuration, is a big deal for photographers or video shooters, as well as it is for those exploring in places with currents, or minor penetration needs where you must be close to the bottom.
