@Snoweman What time of year did you dive the north side of Grand Cayman? Were you doing boat dives? My experience in Grand Cayman earlier this month was very different. We did 7 days of 2 tank boat dives so 14 dives total with 6 on North side, 7 on West side and 1 at Southwest point. The dives on West, North and Southwest were noticeably different.
This was our 4th trip to GC but my first experience with the North side and maybe we just got lucky. In the 6 north dives, we saw 3 reef sharks, 3 spotted eagle rays, 2 nurse sharks, southern stingray and as you mentioned some good corals and great wall formations. We did see some smaller fish but I'm not great about noting those details in my log book. I fully get this may have been good luck with the big stuff and also understand your comment that we saw less of the smaller colorful fish on the North than we do on the West side sites.
The West side dives were super relaxing and fun as has been my past experience on GC. Plenty of fish life on every dive to keep us happy. I just passed my 2 year anniversary of diving and still consider myself new and it's pretty easy to keep me happy while diving.
@Mike Klieb you've gotten good advice from people with far more experience than me. Good luck and have fun planning wherever you decide to go!