I went through the exact same dilemma this past August. I have three children, 7, 8, and 11. I thought and rethought and calculated and recalculated. Money wasn't really an issue, as the cost difference between the rack rate AoA suite price and the heavily discounted deluxe rates was pretty small. These were the factors that weighed in:
1. How big is the room?
The AoA suite is 565 sq. Epcot deluxe standard rooms are 380 sq feet. The Poly has larger rooms with the max being 477 sq. ft.
2. How many bathrooms?
The AoA suites have two full bathrooms. The deluxes have only one.
3. With 3 kids, what amenities do I plan to use? How much?
The pool. Slides didn't really factor in it, as our community center indoor/outdoor pools have slides. They typically go down once or twice, then spend the rest of the time splashing. We wanted to use the pools to cool off in the afternoon, and to take a nice dip before bed. The AoA Big Blue Pool is amazing, and we all loved it. You can see the Epcot fireworks while standing in the pool in the evenings, and that was an awesome perk.
I took a look at the pools at some of the resorts when we visited them for dinner. The deluxe pools all have slides, and it looked like the kids were really enjoying them. If you are people who are going to spend most of your time in the pool, then the deluxes might have more appeal to you.
Hot Tubs. Most deluxes have hot tubs (not Poly), and I absolutely adore sitting in them. Since kids aren't allowed in, my husband and I have to take turns, which takes some of the fun out of it.
4. Will we want to eat at the hotel a lot?
We only ate at the resort a couple of times, usually for a quick lunch. We like to do very early morning ADRs in the parks, and then sit down meals at a different deluxe resort every evening.
The AoA food court has good food, and we were very happy with what we got there. Mostly, though, we ate elsewhere.
5. How many beds are there, and will we be comfortable?
The AoA has 3 beds total. The master bedroom has a queen sized bed, the living area has a full sized pull out couch, and the third area has the table bed. All of the beds were surprisingly comfortable. My kids loved the beds at AoA. They had fun switching off and sleeping in different beds each night. Two of them easily fit in either of the beds. We were able to relax in the evenings with my husband and I watching TV in the bedroom, which the kids happily watched a movie on the other room. Not to mention having privacy with a closed door later on. Wink wink.
The deluxes meant that we'd have two queen beds and a daybed. Everybody has to sleep in the same space, so when the kids are pooped out, my husband and I have nothing really to do except sit outside the room on the balcony, or go to bed ourselves. We typically want to relax and read or watch TV for a while before sleep, but that will keep the kids up. All of us in one sleeping space is not appealing. For other families, this is a non issue entirely.
6. Theming.
My kids went gaga for the AoA. I admit that I did the same. We stayed in the Cars suite, and we were constantly amazed that we really felt like we were in the movies. While we loved visiting the Deluxe resorts for dinner (we loved the Poly), we liked that we felt part of the magic at our resort.
When my kids are older, I think we would like to do the Poly when they are old enough to be by themselves for a few hours a day. (Thinking teen years here).
Basically, it comes down to what you really need as a family to enjoy your vacation. I hope my book here helped.
i think we may end up staying where we are for now. Hopefully, we'll make it a annual or semi annual trip with the right planning and we'll make it to a deluxe one day 
