I beg your pardon, but one only needs to walk through ToT and ride it to know what Disney WAS capable of. Absolutely amazing attention to detail, from a theme of a very old show on TV called the twilight zone, which I bet most people under the age of 40 don't even know about it.
But its this type of immersive, impressive attention to detail that Universal is doing, and Disney is shaving things down to be as cost effective as possible. The first time I visited hogsheade, I felt it was themed better then ToT, and that to me is saying something. Grasshopper has learned well, and is beating Disney old school in the imagineer department, hands down, in my opinion.
The double whammy of universal, is it has one of the most marketable franchises out there. Star Wars might be of equal value, if Disney ever pulls the trigger. Will they put the same effort and dollar into it? Not sure.
Avatar is a weird one. Its just not as marketable as HP or Star Wars, I don't think. The imagination team for product must be scratching their head to come up with good ideas - those aliens were 90% naked all the time, and I can't see parents wanting any of their kids running around in loin cloths and beads. Compare that to HP or Star Wars. What else could they market for avatar? Spears? Bows? ... squirrels roasting on a stick? Its going to be tough....