That's a rather weak argument. Unless you become an instructor like me you can't voice your opinion...not buying it!
It was a facetious comment. It's really easy to take a swipe at shops when you haven't actually realised that they have their own set of issues and problems.... many of which are related to either the wholesalers or the consumers. They are often stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Maybe not become an instructor, maybe start the dive shop? Which ever is better for you... but at least make an effort to understand their problems.
I think the disconnect comes about in scuba diving because there is an inherent conflict of interest between dive instruction and gear sales. A quality class will teach you how to use your kit efficiently, and provide tips on how to minimize your gear for simplicity and streamlining. The dive shop is primarily interested in maximizing profits by selling you more. If there are two solutions to a given problem, you can almost always count on them to sell you the more expensive (and usually more complex) solution.
I agree with the first part, Bob, which is why I don't teach for a shop any more. But the latter is a fairly major gross generalisation.
For example, the shop I used to work for sold a range of BCDs from cheapo crap, a number of Mares BCDs, a number of Scubapro BCDs and Halcyon BP/Ws. Our school/rental gear was a mix of Mares, Scubapro and Halcyon.
People would walk into the shop wanting a BCD. We had a pool on site, they could try any BCD we carried as stock. We managed to sell very few BP/W set ups - despite being cheaper than many of the BCDs. People would want cheap crap, no argument about "you'll probably find that you grow out of this in six months" would wash it. Cheap was what they were looking for.
Funnily enough, half the people who didn't take our advice at the time have since come back to us and (a) complained that we sold them a crap product, and (b) now bought Halcyon BP/Ws. Sure, the Halcyon product wasn't the cheapest - but if they'd actually just bothered to try it in the pool to get over their feeling that "it doesn't look as comfortable as this other one", we would have saved them a fair wedge of cash.
Consumers need to carry some of the responsibility for the level of service they receive from dive shops, wholesalers have their part to play as well. Having worked for a dive shop, having worked for a wholesaler, having worked as an independent instructor... I have a view that there is not a simple problem here, and there is not a simple solution.