Ah -- I think I see. You're saying that new divers should select dive ops that put a guide in the water, because otherwise they will have to hire a DM to dive with them, and that's a considerable additional expense.
I think it depends on the sites. A lot of the dives we did in the Red Sea were so dead-bang simple, from a navigational standpoint, that the only purpose for a guide would have been to point out critters. (And honestly, I think that function is often more valuable to more experienced divers, because a) new divers enjoy everything they see, because it's all new to them; and b) new divers often have a great deal of trouble holding still long enough to look at small, cryptic critters of the sort that guides find and divers in general don't.) At any rate, "reef on the left shoulder going out, reef on the right shoulder coming back," is the kind of simple dive that anyone should be able to do in warm, clear water without current.
Drift dives in Coz are more challenging, as people can get pulled away from the group, and the ascents are done in blue water. But one guide for six or eight people is not really much help with that kind of difficulty, unless that one guide happens to be close enough to the problem diver to intervene.
I'm a big believer in having a buddy or guide who knows the local diving, when you don't. But not to ensure the safe completion of the dive -- just to optimize my enjoyment of the site.
I think it depends on the sites. A lot of the dives we did in the Red Sea were so dead-bang simple, from a navigational standpoint, that the only purpose for a guide would have been to point out critters. (And honestly, I think that function is often more valuable to more experienced divers, because a) new divers enjoy everything they see, because it's all new to them; and b) new divers often have a great deal of trouble holding still long enough to look at small, cryptic critters of the sort that guides find and divers in general don't.) At any rate, "reef on the left shoulder going out, reef on the right shoulder coming back," is the kind of simple dive that anyone should be able to do in warm, clear water without current.
Drift dives in Coz are more challenging, as people can get pulled away from the group, and the ascents are done in blue water. But one guide for six or eight people is not really much help with that kind of difficulty, unless that one guide happens to be close enough to the problem diver to intervene.
I'm a big believer in having a buddy or guide who knows the local diving, when you don't. But not to ensure the safe completion of the dive -- just to optimize my enjoyment of the site.