We've stayed at the All Stars three times. The first two we got what we expected. A clean room in reasonable condition with no items in need of repair. Yes it was noisy and no, the decor didn't really float our boat, but we thought that the value was fine.
The last time we stayed there we encountered some terrible guest service issues. We were given the wrong room number and our key cards wouldn't work (I wonder why?) and the desk was less than accomodating in getting the problem resolved. Our VMCP tickets were supposed to be keyed onto our room card and weren't--we found out when we arrived at the MK, and MK guest services had a heck of a time dealing with the All Star CM's to get it fixed. Our non-smoking room had cigarette burn marks all over the carpet and vanity, a torn comforter, and stains on every piece of fabric or carpet in the room. And did I mention the towels and sheets with holes?
Those are inexcusable issues. I can understand that a room might have a stain on a carpet, but WDW should have been mortified to rent a room in the condition that one was in, and the problems with our tickets and being given the wrong room number--she wrote it down, I didn't misunderstand!--were completely guest service issues that we never felt were really dealt with, even when a manager got involved. And for that reason (amongst many others), we never went back.
That said, I think that a lot of people go to WDW with over the top expectations. Everything from towel animals to birthday cakes to upgrades to CL suites seem to be expected. People complain because the room was too small, the pool closed because it was thundering, there wasn't a full service restaurant, there wasn't a food court, the toothpaste was too expensive in the gift shop, you name it. These are all things which are easily researched in advance, or should be expected.
Unfortunately I think that it's human nature to read one story about someone getting an upgrade and expecting that everyone does, as opposed to realizing that for everyone who got an upgrade, 5000 people got exactly what they booked.
Anne