I will go on record saying that I love all of the peppermint goodness that is abundant during the holiday season. I love peppermint ice cream (and, yes, you can get it any time of year at Baskin Robbins but it's more fun to eat it only during the holidays) and I love the peppermint bark samples that Ghirardelli is currently handing out in DCA. I also love peppermint mochas.
I will eat an occasional candy cane if it presents itself to me - the small kind that may be randomly attached to a gift or in a Christmas card or in a bowl at the bank or something. I don't eat candy canes often, though. I prefer to have crushed candy canes mixed into other things rather than eat the whole cane by itself.
So, based on that, I would never be one of the ones waiting in line for the giant candy canes at DLR.
However, that said, if I were going to go after one of the coveted DLR candy canes, I would want to watch them being made. I wouldn't want to buy them later without seeing the 'show' that is the candy cane-making process. It's a visual thing - some people like to watch things being crafted. Watching them being made before my eyes would be part of the whole experience for me.
Anyone who saw Guy Fieri's "Guy's Disney Holiday" show (taped in 2008, but shown on Food Network in 2009, 2010 and 2011) will recall that there was a whole segment devoted to those candy canes at DLR and exactly how they are made. Guy was in the kitchen with the confectioners as they created them. So that segment alone must have increased interest in the candy canes enormously!
If you did not see "Guy's Disney Holiday," I'm not sure if it will re-air on Food Network this year. It's unusual for that network to show a Disney-based holiday special for more than 3 years in a row (as I noticed with the Raven Symone WDW holiday special from several years ago), so I would be surprised if they showed it again in 2012 (especially since Candy Palace has relocated since last year, and the whole holiday landscape has changed with the introduction of Cars Land and Buena Vista Street). But I'm sure you can find the show somewhere on the Internet!