Ok, lets throw one more wrench into this.
I can get GF Outer Bldg - Standard Room-Club Level Access for $200 less than the CR CL TPV.
ORRRR
I can get GF Main Bldg - Theme Park View - Club Level but that would actually be quite a bit more (25%)
How far is the club from The GF rooms vs the club from the CR rooms? Like for breakfast I could see myself grabbing a few pastries or bagels for the kids while we get ready to go.
At the end of the day, among the monorail resorts and the monorail resort CL's, you really can't go wrong with any of them and they all share a lot of similarities in terms of tranportation convenience, lounge convenience, etc. There are subtle differences of course, but I'd happily stay at all of them for different reasons.
As to your question, distance from room to lounge in the GF main building (RPC, Royal Palm Club) or outer building (SL, Sugar Loaf) is generally the same as what you'll have at Atrium, roughly speaking. At Atrium all rooms are on the same floor as the lounge. At RPC or SL, you could be on a different floor than the lounge, but none of these particular buildings are that big in terms of walking distance. I would consider this a push between all three. But there is something nice about Atrium being all on one floor, don't have to worry about elevators or stairs, etc.
View wise, I'd opt for CR TPV over RPC TPV rooms. One, RPC is usually very expensive, as you have noted. Two, I think the GF view corridor is inferior... you're looking between two buildings at a small portion of the lake towards the MK. The views from CR are far more expansive, you can pretty much see the entire monorail loop, 7 seas lagoon, the park, etc.
Where GF wins for me over CR is in the pools. Two large pools, both with bars, plus the kid's splash area. The CR pool situation is OK, it's just not as good a places like GF or Poly.
GF feels more like a "vacation" to me. CR feels more like I'm there to do Disney. Both are great feelings!