Well you are posting in the PSD forums under equipment...........
I don't think anyone is against it. I had a similar set up for my first handful of dives and found it was way more complicated and served no purpose. I did list a couple of points above in my first post about the differences.
The advice given here is usually from people that have tried many different things and are trying to pass on those lessons. When I bought our (my wife is my main dive buddy and also PSD) first gear it was BP/W from recommendations on this board, go back and read some of my first posts. It was a huge leap to go from something completely unknown vs what was taught in class, but in my opinion it was one of the best choices I ever made. I was told over and over again to just get a single webbing and I could not make that leap and found use padded adjustable harness.
Loaning gear is one thing, but being able to set it up properly, adjust it and help evaluate it is not something that can be done long distance. If you come diving in the PNW there are dozens of people that would willing do this. I have enough spare gear I can easily outfit another diver and again I do share but locally so they can gain the knowledge also. One of our dive buddies had a regulator failure at our last training a couple months ago and she still has it.
I am not sure what the diving scene is like were you are at, but get with as many locals and see what works for them. See what options are out there. You will see just on this board there are tons of opinions about what is right, what is wrong and what one person says is sure to kill you another has dived 1000 times.
I don't think anyone is against it. I had a similar set up for my first handful of dives and found it was way more complicated and served no purpose. I did list a couple of points above in my first post about the differences.
The advice given here is usually from people that have tried many different things and are trying to pass on those lessons. When I bought our (my wife is my main dive buddy and also PSD) first gear it was BP/W from recommendations on this board, go back and read some of my first posts. It was a huge leap to go from something completely unknown vs what was taught in class, but in my opinion it was one of the best choices I ever made. I was told over and over again to just get a single webbing and I could not make that leap and found use padded adjustable harness.
Loaning gear is one thing, but being able to set it up properly, adjust it and help evaluate it is not something that can be done long distance. If you come diving in the PNW there are dozens of people that would willing do this. I have enough spare gear I can easily outfit another diver and again I do share but locally so they can gain the knowledge also. One of our dive buddies had a regulator failure at our last training a couple months ago and she still has it.
I am not sure what the diving scene is like were you are at, but get with as many locals and see what works for them. See what options are out there. You will see just on this board there are tons of opinions about what is right, what is wrong and what one person says is sure to kill you another has dived 1000 times.