Display turning completely off in Always On mode

They're not supposed to change the way AOD works, they're supposed to add options to set the timeout to for example 1 minute, 10 minutes, 60 minutes, and off. 1 minute could be default. And they don't have to change the advertised battery life because they give us an option to change the timeout. It's if they Don't give us the option they should change the advertising.

But it wouldn't hurt you in any way, or make your watch worse in any way, if you would have an option to set the timeout, would it?

It's not an always on display, thats all there is to it.  They shouldn't have advertised it as one.  I don't have much a problem with their implementation, but it is not an AOD.

Exactly this. Everyone has slightly different use cases. As it is, it's probably good for most people, but the reason they call it an AOD is to make the capability disambiguous, just like a store that is open 24/7/365 has a very clear meaning. Do I have to have it on literally all the time? No, but that's where there should be sufficient settings so it can be customized by the user to fit their needs. I understand burn in is a potential issue, but that should be mitigatable. Battery life seems sufficient, I think most people get that user preference influences this. So, while I may be an n of 1, there's too many limitations for me.

The real issue here is (besides the false and misleading AOD promise) is when I do exercise on a static bike or elliptical machine and take the watch off. With this behaviour the screen goes off and cannot see the metrics!

has Garmin lost its mind here ????

Yes, it's actually really hard to understand it's That important to Garmin to not let us have one option but the 60 seconds. 

I own a Venu 2s and was positively surprised by standby displ, gestures and time displaying instantly. So to people seeing or owning a Venu before, no comparison. So much faster, no fade in. 

On Venu 2s you have the time fade in which is sooo annoying and users complained a lot. But with the Epix 2 it really is there, no fade in. Love it. And gesture is really sensitive. So maybe I don't need real always-on which I never thought I would say. It really has fast wake up when arm moving, sometimes a little too sensitive. But it saves battery and prevents burn in for sure. Will watch this but atm I am happy with gesture on and Always-on off. 

So other than one person who had the AOD turn off twice while watching TV, did anyone else encounter the display being off while worn? And I am not talking about watch taken off for some reason, that's another use case...

Bet but only when sat still. 

I do a lot of indoor cycling, especially during the colder months. In case I buy an Epix 2 should I hope I move enough to let it detect I’m alive and the screen doesn’t turn off? Or is there a way to keep it on for all the duration of an activity?