DevonDiver
N/A
It would cost less than the sum of all of the Specialities individually.
Realistically, the only extra cost would be the manuals/certifications from the agency concerned. Having extra manuals never hurt anyone... and you'd be getting more for your money in that respect. There'd be no need for the extra cert cards though... if, for instance, you could go directly to an AOW+EANx card upon certification.
For commercial reasons, none of the main agencies would be likely to do this however.
Over the past few years, it appears that some Shops/Instructors are doing a lesser form of this on their own, as I've met some recently-certified divers who accepted a "Package Deal" of OW+AOW+Nitrox in one combined training class.
Shops will quite often provide these courses (with some discount) when asked. The lack of demand for them tends to mean that they aren't highly marketed though. That, in itself, tends to illustrate that the average person considering dive training prefers a shorter entry-level cost...and prefers to keep their initial expenditure down. Which is why the market has evolved the way it did....
. not only did they not have Buddy Breathing
Removed because it is an utterly surplus skill. People use AAS now. It's an industry standard. Teaching buddy breathing in a scuba class would be akin to teaching motorists how to use hand signals for turning/stopping etc. It's a dead skill for non-professional/non-technical divers.
....or Emergency Ascents,
Not sure where you got this from. PADI teach 2 emergency ascents - Controlled Emergency Swimming Ascent and Air-Sharing Ascent. They also teach (but don't practice) the Buoyant Ascent. SSI teach and practice all 3.
Other than a Buddy Breathing ascent, exactly what other types of emergency ascent were you imagining to be neglected?
...they also didn't get tables-based staged decompression homework,
Instruction with dive computers is becoming more main-stream. The pros and cons to that are debatable. It is certainly more relevant to what divers actually do post-qualification. The drawback is that it arguably provides less theoretical understanding of the physiological impacts on the body. Then again, given that most divers never touch a set of tables again after certification, what difference does it really make?
PADI do require tables based homework at an entry level. They have to plan dives and complete reviews and quizzes using that knowledge. Most courses still use 'plastic' tables. Some of the courses use electronic tables (i.e. the PADI eRDP). The eRDP is still tables.
or pool work that included bailouts
Not sure what you mean by 'bailouts'. I've only heard this term in respect to technical/CCR diving.
....and a harassment session (both of which are fundamentally confidence builders).
Not sure how 'harassment' builds confidence?
These were removed for a number of reasons;
Firstly, because it stopped instructors running military-style 'boot camp' training. It's an ego check for some very irresponsible instructors who day-dream that they could have been Nacvy SEALS in another life...
Secondly, because it prevented traumatized students running to the nearest lawyer with tales of bullying, assault and a dozen other civil or criminal accusations.
The biggest reason why the "Put Another Dollar In" slang exists is because there's a lot of classes that are a poor value because they really don't teach you all that much for what you're paying for.
How so? Most courses clearly state the 'training outcomes', course aims and goals. Just because some people imagine that they will be the equivalent of a Navy SEAL at the end of their OW course... doesn't make that a reality.... and certainly doesn't make that a failing of the course.