I could easily have been the instructor that you mention. I try to preface my answer to questions like the one you cite with, "in my opinion" or "in my experience," but that is a common question from new divers and I probably would have answered it exactly the same. It is my experience that Suunto SK7s seem to work at a greater degree of tilt than most, including other Suuntos. It is what I recommend and use, even though I have never worked at a shop that was a Suunto dealer. I get that you are not really asking about that particular question, but about the ease/certainty that some folks answer whether they know anything about the topic or not. So if someone had asked me that question and I answered it like the instructor you mentioned above, would you have assumed that because I had an easy answer to it that I was just BSing? Or might it have occurred to you that I have owned probably eight or ten different brands of underwater compasses and used even more over the years and was giving a good answer to a common question.
Other general equipment questions don't have such easy answers - for example, "what is the best fin" is a little more complicated. The answer to that is always, "it depends on what kind of diving you are planning on doing?" I generally dive a bp/w with short, wide, stiff fins, wrist mounted computer and compass and nothing dangling when I am diving recreationally. Most of my students and friends end up diving very similar set-ups, not necessarily because I recommend it, but because they see it working well. As for brand, since I don't work for a shop, I don't care much about brand when similar enough products are available, but I am a gear junky and have tried, owned, and serviced most general types of scuba equipment out there and make no apologies for having opinions about it. When someone asks my opinion, I am certainly going to give it. If someone asks about a piece of equipment with which I am unfamiliar, I have no problem saying so and I bet that is true of most experienced divers. I don't really think that any special knowledge that I might bring to a discussion of equipment comes from my being a "pro", it comes from being a gear junky, being obsessive and spending tons of money on stuff I don't really need - none of that would be evident if you saw someone asking me a question on a dive boat. So I guess I am suggesting that not everyone who has easy answers to questions is just a "pro" who needs to have all the answers - follow-up questions will always clear up the issue. Sorry if I wandered far from your original question.
