You're still comparing apples to oranges.
I also got the free dining pin. I'm going to assume we got the same thing.
The pin includes the regular DDP at value resorts. The general public (GP) code includes the QSDP at value resorts. Disney does NOT have to give the same room rate for both offers, though I believe it is the same rate anyway.
I still believe that there must be some kind of difference between the two packages whether it's insurance, room type, number of days on the tickets, park hoppers, checkin/checkout dates, something.
Then again, there are more blackout days on the PIN than there are on the GP code. Maybe that has something to do with it.
Like I said, I got the same PIN. We booked at a moderate so once the visa and GP codes came out, my PIN became pointless. One thing it DID get for me though was the ability to book my resort of choice. When I called Friday morning around 10am (visa deal came out Friday morning), my resort was already sold out for the visa deal. The GP deal has the exact same price that I already have, to the penny, when I price it for my current resort so it does feel as though I got a bit cheated out of something special, but only a bit. I'm already past that and I'm obsessing over other details of planning my vacation (boy do I have a long time to continue obsessing
).
I'll ask again. Why don't you just book the new deal for the savings and cancel your original reservation if you can get the identical deal for cheaper online?