Spaceship Earth in my opinion doesn't belong in the "waste of space" category, it's not even a niche attraction for folks who like diff'rent strokes. It's still a very pleasant ride, has a nice soundtrack and it's been renewed regularly over the years to keep pace somewhat. Unlike quite a few other attractions like Carousel of Lameness, Great Nearly Forgotten Movie Ride, Ellen's Energy Nap, Captain Moonwalk, etc.
It wouldn't cost billions to renew most of those tired old attractions with a new script, new sets and AAs, new music, new lighting effects, new queues, new projectors, new film footage. And I don't think it's serving anyone's interests, not even Disney buffs with niche tastes, to hoodwink people into riding them.
The short term success of the FP+ strategy is hard to argue with. But there's an intangible, invisible line in American culture that once crossed, is really hard to re-cross. It's something to do with hipness, whether people roll their eyes and make jokes about you or whether they still respect and admire you. If the list of really sad, lame, old and un-renewed rides gets too long then it doesn't matter how many of them the algorithm makes you ride before you can pull a second FP for Test Track ... people won't be there to find out.
