I've had 8 Instructors so far and they all seemed pretty good to me. But I guess what you're saying could be true. It took me 5 years of college to get my public school teaching certificate. Then again, there are 20 basic scuba skills, so the subject matter to be learned isn't comparable. How one presents the work and rapport with students is the key.
Basic Scuba Skills:
1. Swimming Ability (strong swimming ability) - seldom required
2. Water treading (no longer required in steel tanks or even full gear with no BCD inflation) - often only required in swimsuit no gear and not always required. Note: My students have to do this in full equipment no BCD inflation. Rescue divers have to do this without fins.
3. Resting position - face down in water breathing properly through a snorkel (most instructors teaching snorkeling cannot teach proper breathing)
4. Surface dives in snorkeling equipment - one-legged, two-legged, feet first or "dirty water/kelp dive"
5. Snorkel clearing - expansion and blast methods
6. Propulsion - flutter kick, frog kick, modified frog, modified flutter, helicopter turns left and right, backward frog kick, rescue kick (inverted scissors), dolphin kick
7. Removal and replacement of scuba unit - at surface, on bottom,hovering over bottom, mid-water or blue water like during a safety stop
8. Removal and replacement of all scuba gear and equipment - at surface, on bottom, hovering over bottom, and mid-water/blue water
9. Removal and replacement of weight belt or weight system
10. Underwater breath hold swimming
11. Ditch, surface, return and don equipment
12. Mask flood & clear, mask removal and clear, no-mask swimming
13. Regulator clearing - 3 ways - hum/exhale into it, purge button, swish/tongue piston
14. Air sharing with additional second stage
15. Buddy breathing with primary
16. Buddy breathing with octo
17. Breathing from the corrugated BCD inflate/deflate hose using auto-inflator
18. Tank valve breathing
19. Creating a face mask with an air pocket
20. Proper ascent rate - kicking
21. Emergency ascent - kicking
22. Air sharing ascent - kicking
23. Buddy breathing ascent - kicking
24. Proper ascent rate - BCD (oral & auto control)
25. Emergency ascent - BCD (oral and auto control)
26. Air sharing ascent - BCD (oral and auto control donor, oral receiver)
27. Buddy breathing ascent - BCD (oral and auto control, donor, oral receiver)
28. Proper ascent rate - breath control
29. Air sharing ascent - breath control
30. Buddy breathing ascent - breath control
31. Repeat all ascents with 1 diver missing mask
32. Repeat all ascents with both divers missing masks
33. Safety stop - maintain normally, air sharing, buddy breathing, no mask and two divers no mask (all skills with and without up line)
34. Buoyancy - no more than a 3 - 5 foot shift in any skill
35. Trim - no more than 20 to 30 degrees from horizontal
36. Trim 'round the world - vertical, horizontal, right side down, suppine, left side down, inverted
37. Regulator breathing while inverted and suppine
38. Breathing through a free-flowing second stage
39. BCD inflation at surface (bobbing)
40. Controlled descents - feet-first, head-first, horizontal
41. Valve drill - one of the worst crimes in diving education is to not perform valve shutdowns and openings. No diver should die because he or she jumps into the water with the air off and cannot turn it on. Proper weighting, strong swimming and water treading abilities, and ability and skill at valve drills will prevent many of these deaths.
42. Rescue - simple self-rescue and simple buddy rescue and assist techniques should be part of all open water training
43. Compass navigation - outbound and reciprocal courses
44. Stuck BCD auto-inflator - kick against buoyant force, vent gas from rear dump, disconnect auto-inflator, and neutralize buoyancy orally
45. Air-gun first stage - understanding how to manage the noise, bubbles, confusion, and ascent or air-share ascent related to a first stage malfunction in class will reduce stress later
46. Gas management - being able to plan and conduct dives working in PSI, RMV, and SPG calculations on the fly, i.e., reading gauge psi and knowing one's remaining volume and time at a glance
47. Being able to use decompression tables in case of accidental overstays, adjust for altitude, and understanding what to do for omitted deco and treat DCS and AGE
48. Properly plan a dive to include sequence and responsibility of team members, whether to use all air, 1/2 air or thirds as it pertains to recreational diving, planned and max depths, duration, distance, direction, safety stops, etc.
49. In water check for: Deployable additional second stage, octo, long hose primary, bubble check, ability to reach valve, and equipment inventory
50. Reserving enough gas to get two divers to the surface at max depth in an air share slowly, safely to include safety stops.
51. Entries - giant stride, entry from height, forward & backward rolls, seated, beach/wave entry
52. Exits - Ladder, "California Crawl", beach/wave, kick/pull up into inflatable or pool deck
All skills but, backward frog, helicopter turns (using 2 feet), air gun of first stage, and rule of thirds, and planning in rmv and spg pressure to volume on the fly were part of my open water course as a student. I added the backward and heli kicks, air gunning and SPG time/psi/volume on the fly relationship to my PDIC OW course when I teach it.
Some of the older guys have done even more. I may have left a skill or two out accidentally, but if I missed something or you older guys have a good OW skill aside from advanced navigation, Search & Recovery, line/reel work, etc., that is better suited for AOW let me know.
Compared to nearly 30 years ago and earlier, today's open water diver is really only getting a Resort Course - Plus. In fact, PDIC's "Resort Course" has similar training to other agencies' open water courses. It hasn't been changed since it was first created around 1980, and now, as standards have dropped, full open water programs read like an old resort program. Sometimes NEW does not mean IMPROVED.