I wonder if your opinion is based on current data or things of old. I know the group had a very bad and elitist reputation for almost a decade, but they've really done their best to squash that. I'm in the heart of GUE founded territory, and while I've never taken a single class from GUE, I am using their shop almost exclusively for support of my students and friends (when not at my shop). From the bottom to the top of their staff they treat everyone I bring to them with respect and attention, helping any way they can. And that goes for my most noob student, not just my CCR and Cave students.
Honestly, if I had to do it all over again, I would have taken a GUE track from the beginning. Sure, some things don't line up exactly the way I wanted them to in the beginning, like not diving CCR or Sidemount. But they've changed both of those things. And there's no arguing the quality of student and instructor. And, quite frankly, I'm tempted to take a fundies course for no other reason than to get to dive with Lauren.
There's bad attitudes in any camp. GUE used to have a bunch of them. Now I don't encounter any of them. I can't say that about PADI, IANTD, NASE, NACD (That's sorta a joke, lol) NSS-CDS or just about any other agency.
To reiterate, I have zero affiliation with anything GUE. Not a paid spokesperson, don't have any certs, don't sell anything or buy anything from them. Just my perspective while they've been helping my students for the last 3 or 4 years.
The elitist attitude is much better, but I still regularly see it (reddit is real bad about it sometimes, here isn't as bad anymore). My primary problems are their thoughts on medical and their training program structure. Regarding medical, when GUE get's their medical degree, and becomes my PCP, then they can have my whole medical history and I'll trust them to make any judgement about what I can and/or can't do with whatever medical conditions I do or don't have. Until then, being a good diver doesn't make them qualified or competent to make those choices or to get that information and I won't be handing that information over to them. A diving instructor/agency needs to know that I'm cleared by a medical professional to dive, that's it imo. The WRSTC questionnaire is excessive imo, and many organizations don't really care about the first page if you have a doctor's sign-off on the second page (yeah, that's the subject of a number of threads by itself), but at least the other agencies don't ask for your full medical history like GUE requires per their website.
As a person who has been an instructor for various subjects over the years, and has designed many training programs, one key part of any good training program, without major unusual scenarios, imo is that it has a 1 set of goals for any given class. Those goals are established based on the purpose of the training, and the training should be designed such that the goals are reasonably achievable for any qualified student taking the class with a competent instructor to achieve. There should never be course that has a fail, a pass that isn't a pass but you didn't fail, a you passed but you you didn't fully pass, and a "congratulations, you passed" all as options. A design such as that tells me that someone didn't understand how to make a course that took a student from the expected starting point, to the end point desired, for the course. It's inherently flawed in its design, in my opinion as someone who designs training courses as part of my profession.
That isn't to say it isn't "good" training, or it doesn't work for many people, it's just not what I consider a well-designed program, and that coupled with my issues with their apparent opinion that they deserve to play doctor, without bothering to become a doctor or be subject to the privacy rules that doctor's have to follow etc, that keeps me away from the organization primarily.
I'm sure most of the people at GUE, teaching for GUE, and who have been certified by GUE are good people. I just have those two philosophical oppositions to their program. The having seen some people with crappy attitudes who were trained by them is really just a minor point that wouldn't have, in itself, influenced me in any way for or against obtaining training through them.
