For what I have heard (I'll see with my eyes when I'll land there) is exactly the opposite: there's an abundance of soft corals and no real interesting formations; there's much less marine life, especially in the mid-size and pelagic, most of the marine life in the area is small and muck dives; ...oh and the cost, this I can answer already, coz I paid for my trip in PG already: I spent the double of what I paid in Cozumel (eat and the drink there could be different..). I'll update my "collected info" with the facts as soon I'll be there.
![Smile :) :)](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
...but I think the Caribbean area cannot be compared to anything else, really.
Lol... is this a troll or are you completely misinformed?
Disclaimer : I had my OW in Bonaire 25 years ago went a few times diving in the Caribbeans and once I dived SEA and the South Pacific I never went back to Caribbeans for the next 900 dives, so boring and expensive.
I'll first head to the facts : scientifically Caribbeans is a dead end when it comes to biodiversity. Read all studies from Allen et al, you'll get the most diversity in the Coral Triangle (grossly formed with northern Phils, Bali, eastern PNG) species then decrease with distance, less diversity on the GBR, lesser in Fiji, even less in French polynesia, etc. on the western side, less diversity in Thailand, Maldives then even less on the African coast and lastly... Caribbeans is the poor man of the underwater planet.
Secondly,
I'll resort to the photos, as a small image talks more than a lot of words. May be you'll find Caribbeans are not that colorful... I am supposed to be a macro photographer, btw, so not really chasing whale sharks, mantas and that stuff you will also find in the PIs.
Costwise, I am also from Europe except I organisze myself alone, not from travel agencies. You can take a flight to HKG then a low cost to Manila which is cheap.
There are hotels from 20EUR to 250EUR if you want but I don't know anywhere else where you can dive from 20USD like in Moalboal for instance, certainly not in the Caribbeans, except in that overrated dive factory in Roatan...