There was no misunderstanding, definitely off the floor.
I am not being black and white with the students, I've explained this is what I do and what most people tend to do (with regards to feet placement); and that it works for me. I'm not bashing my CFI at all. I just want to give the students the best possible education. One way to do that is to broaden my education and speak to other people in the field.
I remember in my training I was taught by about 7 different instructors over the whole period, and each had their own nuances they liked. So I found I had to adjust some things to keep whoever I was flying with happy. It's good to get different instructors views on topics, so I enjoyed that and learnt a lot, but as you mentioned John, standardizing the training is important.
At the end of the day, you ask 3 instructor's a questions, it seems you'll get 3 different answers
