It is so similar to MaxPass in its design that I'm going to guess that it is similar in execution (although I wouldn't put it past Disney to write the code 2x for twice the fun for their IT!). MaxPass had to be bought on the app, couldn't be done at the hotel. We purchased ours the day of when we only wanted 1 day on a 3 or 4 day ticket, but at the time there weren't park reservations (this was before FlexPass) so you had no way of telling Disney which days you were planning on using your tickets ... and your choices for purchasing MaxPass ahead of time was to either buy all 3/4/5 days or none until the day of.
I'm with you on this. Having a few members of your party wake up to reserve RoTR or WS for everyone was okay, so we got around the 7a for half of us that wanted to sleep in. But it hasn't been uncommon for us to get a virtual queue position right when we had a Savi's/Droid Depot/restaurant reservation, depending on which one felt like it would be harder to move sometimes we'd go to the ride first and show up late to the experience, sometimes we'd go to the reservation first and go late to the ride. So far the CMs have always been accommodating at whichever one we were late to when we explain the timing conundrum, but it was annoying, which was one of the reasons I enjoyed FP+ at WDW, since everything could be scheduled to fit together. I just didn't like the limitations of only 3 FP+ in one park.
MaxPass was next available, likely G+ will be too. So if you had a noon reservation at a restaurant you'd pick one that started at 1p. It was kind of annoying to have to look at your phone for the next ride while you were trying to enjoy your lunch. But we had teens that were okay with being our MP chasers, and they liked picking our rides anyways.
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Overall Genie doesn't seem toooooo different from MaxPass which had its pluses and minuses. Our runners appreciated not having to criss cross the parks for FPs. We also didn't buy it every day (more like 1 out of every 3), and thought it delivered a lot more value when it was an AP add on. The nickel-and-diming of G+ does bother me, particularly the unknown/fluctuating price tag for being able to ride the RoTR/WS ride.
I know for my party, since acquiring
DVC we're now early morning/late night park people with resort time from noon to dinner so standby lines for many of our favorites are pretty reasonable before 11a and after 8p (Smuggler's Run usually dropped to 30 minutes late at night, we could hit BTMRR several times in the morning before lines got above 20 min, and we're locked into holiday weekends due to kids ages). If they put a price tag on Space Mountain with a wait of under an hour, we'll be spending less time in the parks than we do now, and probably spending less money in there as a corollary, as it makes those impulse churros <or insert snack or souvenir here> less likely.
The problem with nickel and diming like this makes it feel like the very high ticket prices are less justifiable now. Others have mentioned the all-inclusive nature of
DCL being a draw, which it is. I've walked off cruises very happy with what I've spent both before and during the cruise because there wasn't a whole lot of premium experiences I wanted once I was on the ship, so the high price tag was worth it. Or when I went with new friends who wanted to try the extra stuff, it was worth the upcharge. Riding rides without waiting 2+ hours shouldn't be a premium experience since customers already paying a high ticket price.
