As with so many debates about training on SB the arguments are myopic......................... It's supply and demand. In many of the sports out there that people instruct those that get paid those higher rates are ones that have done very well in competition or coached those that have done well. Golf, horse shows, dirt bikes, martial arts, ect. There is no competition for scuba, it's an activity. Activity instructors generally don't make large sums in any field or instruction. .
You're RIGHT, and what is TRUELY MYOPIC..........is that The whole POINT in discussing QUALIFICATIONS, was only indirectly related to the topic which is the perverse economic model under which diving instruction is currently structured. Your one comment is exactly right, it is DIRECTLY related to supply and demand; and the SUPPLY of instructors, is directly related to the level of qualification AND COST required to obtain the cert....both of which are several orders of magnitude lower than in years past (the cost when adjusted for inflation). This was the main point. That the DUMBING DOWN of ALL diver training, in order to expand the number of divers....as well as the number of instructors; has several unintended economic consequences.....one of which, has been the virtual elimination of a decent standard of pay to THE FEW GOOD INSTRUCTORS out there, because there are so damn many LOUSY ones, most working for nothing as summer-weekend warriors, in return for a gear discount, some free dives, and MAYBE to have their liability insurance subsidized.
Again, you are 100% correct when you say it is primarily "supply and demand" determining training pricing. But when the training agencies PERVERT the dynamics of supply by qualifying virtually anone who can breathe, and write a check to become an instrcutor; the rest of the economic model becomes PERVERSE as well. When those same training agencies further dumb down even entry level training to such a degree, that the only way to deliver an entry level course COST-EFFECTIVELY is ON-LINE over a weekend......then you set an EXPECTATION among the consumer public that dive training is a trivial affair that SHOULD BE CHEAP, since "anyone, even a 10-year old can do it.....anyone can teach it......and you can do it over a weekend". These were my points earlier, in that the training agencies have caved in to the demands of the live-aboard dive-travel, as well as the equipment manufacturer segment of the industry; in order to produce large numbers of divers in as short a time as possible. This transformation mainly occurred during the unprecedented economic growth in the 1990s'; when people started to have more money than sense....and during which the tech-diving craze exploded (in spite of the huge expense for tech-equipment, helium gas, and high cost to access deep wrecks). If you do your histoical research, you'll find that the pricing associated with diver training, EVEN DURING THE 1990's, DID NOT go up in proportion to the demand in terms of numbers of divers (AND INSTRUCTORS) that got certified through the 1990s and into the 2000's. Equipment prices went up. Cost of Dive Travel went up. And what went up even more disproportionately was Instructor Liability Insurance premiums...... The only thing that did NOT go up (and in fact went down substantially when adjusted for inflation), is the price for recreational diver training, at every level (excluding tech-diver training, which is all over the map and is difficult to average.
In summary, you're right it is MYOPIC....but especially so to simply say that prices are a consequence solely of supply and demand, without acknowledging the effect that industry standards, and training agency policies have on Supply.