I was diving on Thursday night and had "soup" conditions. We had one group of three (me and two buddies) and one husband and wife team. We swam out from a local beach and dropped down into 15-18ft of water. The vis was only 1-2ft. The husband and wife team bailed immediately, which was good. There were definitely not up to this dive. My dive buddies and I continued on, although it can be very challenging to keep together in such conditions. We headed to deeper water and found vis of 10-12 ft, which actually made for a great dive. We saw a whole host of bottom dwellers, including a bunch of red octopus, a bat ray (who exploded off into the distance as soon as we blundered over him), giant sand shrimp, thornback rays, bugs, lavender sculpin, etc. My point is that vis is a local condition. It can really vary from place to place. Going to deeper water (in my case "deep" was only 25-30ft) can sometimes open up the vis to an acceptable level.
In general, once I am in the water, I figure that I already have to pay the "scuba tax", which is my name for the time required to clean up the gear. Having committed to the tax, I figure I might as well get the most out the dive. Typically I look for better vis. Sometimes I find it; sometimes not. If I never find good vis, I will do what many others do. I practice hovering or navigation skills. One of my favorites is 'find the rock". You find a rock and then navigate back to it. In low vis, it can be a real challenge. I typically start out small with 10-20ft out-and-backs. If I am feeling cocky, I will try a square or triangle. I also practice macro spotting. Even in low vis, you can find some structure and give it a really good scan. Often you find things that you would otherwise overlook since you are forced to slow down.
I too find low vis dives relaxing, but some people find them claustrophobic. Finally, you need to keep your dive buddy within touching distance and need to keep an eye on your finning technique. The vis is never so low that you can't make it worse! Personally I avoid frog kicking in low vis unless you want to keep kicking your dive buddy. But then again, I never silt up the bottom with a bent knee flutter. I am constantly amazed by the number of people who switch to other kicks because they can't do a decent non-silting flutter.
