Treg.
Your starting point for this appears to be: once a helicopter is ditched, the vital first action is to abandon it. Obviously if it upside down this is correct but, since this premise is never questioned, the option to remain on board is not considered. In my previous career as a merchant seaman it was a golden rule: "your best lifeboat is the ship". In any emergency all efforts were made to keep the ship afloat and a decision to abandon was a last resort.
Nearly 12 years ago I ended up on the surface of a rough, cold sea after a lightning strike had destroyed my tail rotor. Once on the surface, we immediately launched liferafts and abandoned the helicopter, leaving behind such things as comfortable seats, shelter and efficient means of communication. We did this because it simply did not occur to us to do otherwise. We then sat in a crowded raft (which only had one flotation ring as the other was punctured by part of the aircraft structure) for over an hour watching our helicopter sit comfortably riding the waves.
I learned afterwards that there were previous instances of the type (AS332L) remaining afloat and upright for 24 hours in a force ten.
Only last month, a similar type ditched and all abandoned into a dark, cold sea, only for their craft to wash up, intact and upright, on a beach some time after they were rescued. I offer no criticism of the crew, as they followed their training but with 20:20 hindsight they might have chosen a different course of action.
Please, also, don't feel that I am criticising you. It is not a given that that a helicopter will float the right way up and, if it doesn't, then the training that you offer is vital. My only point would be that if any reader of this ever finds themselves in the position that I found myself in back in 1995, they should pause just a few seconds to consider if abandonment is the only option. Perhaps you will feel that this is a message that you can use in your training.
LS