Medwheeler,
I've trained with Pat 5 times. I can tell you from personal experience that I have never seen him put down or ridicule a students equipment unless on day one it was unsafe or unserviceable. I can tell you about a class where a student showed up with his daily carry weapons. TWO HK squeeze cockers.
I'm sure that he was referring to pistols that don't fit the shooters hand when he was talking about not being able to "break the low left hit due to the unnecessary double action".
When you see the number of students Pat does in a year, you quickly see what equipment works and what doesn't work. When you are in class, you aren't going to learn much if you are constantly fighting your equipment. Or you can't make that first round hit because the handgun you chose doesn't fit your hand.
I remember a carbine class where an entire tactical unit from a sheriffs department was enrolled. They brought their duty weapons including an M14 that was acquired through the 1033 program and had been chopped and modified by one of the big name companies that did that kind of work. It looked beautiful and I'm sure the M14 lovers here at THR would have drooled over it for hours. The problem was, it wouldn't function. By noon of the first day, that deputy was shooting a borrowed M4 so he had a functional carbine to complete the class.
The point Pat is making is that the time to sort out your equipment is before you get to class. That way you can actually get the training you paid for.