I'm with you on this one. It seems that most people are switching to some form of chopping. Why shouldn't I just start learning to chop right now, and add the older methods later if I need them?
I'm with Olddog on this one. You need to learn how to divide and conquer. While it's true that many are chopping (I would disagree with "most", and the ASCRS surveys would support me on that), if you talk to those surgeons who are really pushing it, they will most likely tell you that there are still situations where you have to be able to go back to divide and conquer. Several of them have actually now been going to pre-chopping, which, despite the name is actually closer to a divide and conquer approach (this is what I currently do most of the time).
It's not like divide and conquer is an outdated technique with inferior results and old equipment, so your analogy to DOS and the telegraph is not really appropriate. In the right hands, it can be just as fast as chopping (with less risk of losing that little chopped piece of nucleus in the angle to surprise you a few days later). You also have to consider that if you're using newer machines with either torsional or transverse motions, chopping is actually more difficult because the handpiece has a harder time grasping firmly onto the nucleus to pull it up unless you go to straight longitudinal phaco (which eliminates the benefit of using torsional).
As a starting surgeon, you're not at "slightly" greater odds of popping the capsule, you're at significantly greater risk. And, as Olddog mentioned, you have the opportunity to destroy both sides of the capsule.
And I completely agree with Olddog that you need to be very comfortable using both hands together before you start to chop. A lot of people
think they have good control of that second hand from the beginning, but watch your early videos; you'll see that second instrument going all over the place, putting pressure on the paracentesis (making the chamber shallow), etc.
Certainly it's beneficial to know how to chop, especially if you do a lot of PXF and trauma cases. And it's good to know how to pre-chop, how to do stop-and-chop (which I think is a next good step in learning phaco), how to do a Brown's maneuver. The more possible good techniques you have at your disposal, the more likely you can face any situation, but divide and conquer should be the foundation from which you build up to everything else.