You really can't just look at someone who's staying deluxe and then make an arbitrary judgment call that that person is paying more overall than someone staying at a value.
Perhaps, but you
can look at the
entire class of deluxe resort guests and say that they are
contributing more profit per unit of perquisite offered. Deluxe resorts are higher margin offerings (across the travel and hospitality industry, incidently, not just at WDW).
I do think that it would hurt my feelings if ...
I would hope these discussions could help avoid that. It's surely nothing personal. Disney is, as you say, a business, and they're obligated by law to make their offerings such that what would, over the long-term, benefit their shareholders the most, even if that means that some guests don't get some things that other guests get.
But they also have to think about that loyal AS customer who could conceivably pay just as much as that Poly customer (if not more) over the course of a year.
Both you and Val said something like this. It is important to remember that
revenue doesn't matter. Profit is what matters. A value resort guest would have to stay a lot longer to contribute as much profit as a deluxe resort guest. Also, as I mentioned above, isolated exceptions don't matter much either. What matters is what the whole class of guest typically does.
It's just disney has never differentiated between their customers before.
This is not true. There are many examples. Originally Priority Seating at restaurants was not available to off-site guests. Still, today, off-site guests are lower priority (they don't get 180+10 privileges) for ADRs. Prior to the opening of Caribbean Beach Resort, Disney didn't even offer any accommodations to folks who weren't deluxe resort guests, forcing such people out onto US-192. How much more differentiated can you get than that?
Universal doesn't seem to find the need to treat their onsite guests differently from eachother.
Universal has fewer hotels, and only has deluxe and moderate resorts.
Paying more should get you more
Agreed.....AT the resort itself.
Only as long as that's the best business decision. I believe that the data is beginning to show that that is no longer the case, that deluxe-only perqs AT THE PARKS is becoming a GOOD THING in Disney's eyes.
There have been many other discussions here in the past about whether there should be new deluxe-only perqs. The reality is that they're now becoming necessary because many of the great perqs Disney can offer couldn't practically be offered to as many guests as are at all three classes of resort on-site. In the end, it comes down to the people who stay at deluxe resorts generally liking the idea, while the people who don't generally not liking the idea, but there is nothing about the idea itself that would lend itself towards anything other than the best business decision: whatever will make the most profit over time. The things they're discussing aren't significant enough to depress bookings at value resorts too much, but could have a major impact on raising average rate paid at deluxe resorts. When it is determined that that's the case, these changes will happen.
Thanks for the good discussion! It seems that some other people on the Dis seem to have trouble with different opinions.
YES, paying more to stay at a deluxe resort should get you more perks (at that resort) no matter how BIG or SMALL they seem. 
