I see your point; please try to see the other side. Other people waited in line to ride the ride. When you do something that puts someone else ahead of those people who are waiting, you are disregarding the fact that they have been waiting. You may not think it's a big deal, and others might not either, but all any of this gaming does is say to the rest of the guests that their time is less important than yours. Or in this case, that you get to decide who doesn't have to wait in a line.
it may not seem like a big deal, but in a place like Disney, we all have to accept certain premises. One of them is that we are all treated equally. That means we all get our limited number of fastpasses and when we don't have them, we all have to wait in lines. Any of these things that change that dynamic give the person getting them a benefit denied everyone else. Is that a big deal? No. But then some people say holding a place in line isn't a big deal. Some people say that letting the entire Micronesian Navy cut in from of you in line is not a big deal. Someone will always say getting an advantage is not a big deal.
And maybe it's not. But it's not wrong, or prudish if someone thinks it is. It's not the morality police to suggest that maybe you ought to think before just assuming that gaining -- or handing out -- an advantage to someone else is a good thing.
The other thing apparent thing about rider swap is that sooner or later WDW will stop it. It'll be tied to bands and this kind of thing will be limited. The more often it is used in ways other than it's intended -- which is to give a parent who waited in line the chance to ride despite the chance they have an child too young to participate -- the quicker that change will come.
You present your argument logically and politely. I see your view and it's reasonable. I would counter that the overwhelming disadvantage families with small children face when touring the parks more than offsets any perceived unfair "advantage" to be gleaned from clever rider swap strategies. While Family 1, who is ineligible for rider swap, may bemoan the fact Family 2 (with an 18 month old) has an older child and one adult that get an "unfair" 2nd ride on Star Tours, that same Family 1 has hit TSMM, RnRC, ToT, and is headed to GRMM the first 1-2 hours after rope drop at DHS while Family 2 is spending an hour riding ToT with rider swap, and then looking at a 60+ min wait at RnRC or TSMM.
Believe me, as a parent of 3 who has never taken a trip to Disney where both my wife and I have ridden anything other than "kiddie" rides together with our children (as a family), we're not coming out ahead.
The other counter point I would make (as others have alluded) is that Disney has clearly set forth the policy that the older child can ride twice with RS--there is no additional disadvantage that standby riders are burdened with whether that 2nd ride is with the 2nd parent or the same parent a 2nd time. If Family 2 has an 18 month old, a 7 year old, and a mother who is deathly terrified of roller coasters, why should their 7 year old "only" get to ride Space Mountain once, when Family 3 next to them in line has the same age breakdown but 2 parents who love roller coasters, and their 7 year old gets the RS benefit of riding twice?
The whole system would work much better if Disney did it the way Universal does--the whole family goes through the line together, and then near the front of the line there is a waiting area (usually with age-appropriate entertainment for young children) where the waiting parent and toddler sit until the first group has finished, at which point the waiting parent and older child IMMEDIATELY get to board the next vehicle. As opposed to Disney, where the family is split up, half goes through the line while the other half twiddles thumbs outside, and then the waiting partners go through and wait in the fastpass line again... which on some rides can be a good 15-20 minutes.
