The reason you would dive with a long hose, is that you "care" about your dive buddy, and expect at some time in the future, you will be doing an air share during a dive with a buddy. When this does happen, you would be far more comfortable and in control, breathing out of a bungied back up reg, and having your separate inflator hose for bouyancy control--you have used this every day of your diving, in exactly the same way as you would in the air share, so there is no increased stress from having it suddenly difficult at the time you need it to be easiest.
Having to breathe out of your air 2 equivalent device, means controlling bouyancy in a manner quite different from your normal diving, when you have to breathe out of it. Personally, I have tried these systems and found they offered no advantage worth mentioning, only disadvantages--of course, dive shops love to sell techno-junk for big bucks
Dan V
Hardly. The long hose main purpose is for sharing air in a confined dive space. Using a standard length hose in open water, does not automatically mean one does not care about their buddy, it just means that there is little value in using a long hose when diving in open water.
One man's techno-junk is another man's choice in octo. No more, no less.