It's all about marginal cost and economics 101. Every time I go to WDW I get surveyed at least two or three times. They want to know my zip code right up front, then they ask about length of stay, number of trips in the past year, total number of trips etc.
What they are doing is testing the upper price level people are willing to pay and I can assure you they are very aware of what their competition charges. Not just Sea World or Universal, but all forms of family vacations.
As a result they have created a bifricated pricing system that motivates peoples decisions around what tickets they buy and what influence they can have about where they stay, eat, and what they do. Every action Disney takes is driven by maximizing guests stay at Disney to extract every dollar they can.
Think about it, if you buy an AP then there is an assumtion you live close enough to get what you think is a good value. This is especially true of Florida pass holders. Therefore to incent those people they give dining and resort discounts because locals can drive from home, stay offsite, and eat away from Disney. But if Disney incents them to stay on property and gives them discounts at the resturants then maybe they capture a few more of their vacation dollars.
For visitors traveling farther they want you to stay longer, so multi day
ticket prices drop rapidly. I think you can add days after 6 for something like $6 a ticket. Many folks would consider a couple extra days at that price. They offer Magical Express to discourage you from renting a car which means you won't be leaving the property and so they will capture every dollar you spend while on vacation.
The whole point is they know the break points and I really think a lot of the price increases over the past few years have not been related to inflation but rather what they can get in terms of incremental revenue.
Disney does not look at individual ticket prices nearly as much as what they receive on average from all tickets daily. In otherwords I would venture to say that the number of park guests in attendence on any given day who actually paid $85 for a ticket to one of the parks probably represents less than 10% of the people there. Many are on multiday passes, some on AP's and some on Florida resident passes. Disney only cares about the total dollars and average revenue per head. That is the number they play with.
I am sure that it is nothing more than a large linear programing model that has the price of AP's Resident passes, and multiday passes that probably solves for what a one day price should be.
The consolation in the whole thing is that your trip given all the pricing variables of onsite vs offsite rooms, meals, and souviniers and driving vs flying means that you can still make it affordable dispite the ticket prices.
People are entitled to their opinion. 
His total compensation would have been made from 341,510 tickets, assuming they were $85 each.
Putting income from price increases back into the part of the business that impacts the customers is palatable. Putting income from price increases into the CEO's pocket is not (to me anyway). I think questioning price increases is fair and we should spend our money according to the answers to those questions.
