I think I see where DevonDiver is coming from.
When we talk about experience, we tend to think of it in a a positive way, but as an educator for over 25 years (and also as a musician - we talk about experience and practice ad nasueum) we (well, some of us) believe that "experience" does not necessarily mean "practiced" and "practice" does not mean "good practice." If one is trying to learn something that requires repetition and practice to perfect or make second nature, first, there is no guarantee that the learner actually learned correctly what they were supposed to learn - and here the instructor should be evaluating if the learning was communicated as intended. Then the learner goes off to use/practice what was learned. Assuming the learner actually did learn the correct technique or method or whatever, then are they practicing it appropriately and effectively? If not, they are just learning or gaining experience with or reinforcing bad technique. But if they learned correctly and practiced appropriately (big ifs), then experience should equate to greater ability.
The reason I would say that about 20-25 dives is a good point for AOW, is that it's far enough along that the student has at that point started to solidify a technique (for good or bad) that can be evaluated and corrected. Sooner than that, the diver's technique may not be consistent enough to evaluate reliably. E.g., on one dive I may try to control buoyancy one way, and maybe use completely different methods on each of the next few dives because 1) I did not learn the appropriate technique and/or 2) I have not systematically and thoughtfully practiced my technique. The longer I use bad technique, the more it becomes learned and the harder it will be to correct.
AOW as I experienced it, was not as much about learning specific skills (I had already done boat, wreck, deep dives, knew how to use a compass, and did a private buoyancy checkout after purchasing new equipment) as it was an opportunity to do 5 dives with a private instructor who was able to evaluate my overall diving technique and to correct any original misconceptions/mislearning I had experienced from my OW course, correct any bad technique I had developed from practice over my last 20 or so dives, and provide additional guidance as to how I could practice and perfect my skills going forward. The AOW cert was actually meaningless to me, except for those (seemingly rare) instances where a dive op wants AOW cert to do a deep dive.
