"Problems in these environment must be dealt with underwater until the dive either swims out or is cleared to go & these problems rarely present themselves as only 1. Typically one problem leads to another, leads to another, leads to another,.... "
That's not true. Most problems are resolvable when possessed with a calm mind and the right tools for the job. Cascading events are usually the result of panic. I've always been curious as to who would be more likely to panic - someone who is used to having a superior supervising their actions or someone who is used to dealing with situations independently?
Dale:
So I know what I'm dealing with, what is your highest cert level?
Your quote above is wrong. In a cave, a diver can be completely calm, but had a catastrophic gas loss and in getting the valve shut down drop a light, silt out vis, lose a buddy, etc. etc. etc. This diver hasn't panicked, but the problem has escalated. And that's not an exhaustive list. There are things that go from bad to worse in an overhead environment all the time.
I agree you can learn from a book the procedures to resolve most emergencies. But how are you going to practice these simulated emergencies underwater in real life conditions without someone who can tell you what your doing wrong, or what you did right, or how to improve on it? A book isn't going to tell you that, and you won't be able to determine that on your own. Hell, I dove with a cave diver for 2 months recently who didn't believe her frog kick sucked, that it produced tons of silt and no thrust. It took many people telling her before she finally realized there was issues with it, and only then did she start to get it fixed. Today, her frog kick rocks, she's got tons of thrust, and because of that her sac rate in a cave is awesome. But where was the book who helped correct her frog kick? She couldn't even see the problem with it.
Yup, I'll say it again. You can get the theory and procedures from a book. You can get the math from a book. Read every book on diving ever written, it won't make you a better diver. I recently had students who bought every cave diving book published. They had read them cover to cover multiple times. When we got into the water they couldn't demonstrate the proper way to tie off a reel. Actually, they couldn't demonstrate the proper way to tie off a reel on land or in the water.
As far as vested interest being an instructor ---
I make anywhere from 250-20,000 per day in my real job. If I'm teaching diving, I don't make anywhere near that. I promise I lose money when I'm teaching every single time. I'm very selective in my students. If you're not someone who knows someone, you probably can't get into my class. I could care less about making money teaching. I teach ONLY because I want to. I could care less about pursuing some agenda here. I speak only because I believe wholeheartedly about what I'm saying.
But, I'm probably talking to someone who's never taken a high level technical course and no matter what I say, could not possibly understand the error in their logic. And that's fine too.