First, a good diver, particularly some of the people that have responded to this thread, can dive a completely convoluted rig and be much more competent in the water than those advocating a pony in the first place. In all honesty, a stage rigged pony is not that big of a deal to someone who regularly uses deco bottles and stages. So, it is easy to argue that it is no big deal to have. However, a pony is also completely useless to those that could easily tote one.
Second, if you are a good teammate, it is very easy to find other well qualified divers to dive with. If for some reason you happen to live on the moon and there are absolutely none around, it just takes a little effort on your part to cull some of the better candidates from the herd and develop your own solid buddies. The, I do X because no one qualified will dive with me is a weak argument and generally shows that the person stating that has not yet adopted the right attitude for competent DIR divers to be willing to dive with them.
