From these observations, I've concluded that the buddy system is mostly mythical. It is unreasonable, unworkable, unfathomable, and unnatural. In my view, most diving today is, in fact, solo diving, even if the divers claim to be buddy diving. Unfortunately, because it is taboo, most divers have had no specific training to qualify them for such solo diving. Undoubtedly because people are nervous about being out of their natural breathing element and at the mercy of the monsters of the deep.
Fear is the motivation for the buddy system.
Divers do not want to be eaten. Regrettably, the divers that repeat this joke are often serious. Many divers choose a buddy simply because they are alarmed at being alone, and not because there is a possibility of the buddy actually assisting in an emergency. Unfortunately, few people defending the buddy system seem to address the critical point of whether it does, in fact, make diving safer as intended. Since the introduction of the buddy system 30 years ago, a large body of divers has developed who have made careers out of sport diving.