We rarely get to a theme park before 11-ish in the morning (goal is to be leaving the hotel room by 10) and always get to ride whatever we want, with one exception: TSMM. TSMM FP-s were never available that late in the day. Otherwise, we'd usually be able to ride everything we wanted, even TT and Soarin', although the FP-s might have been later in the afternoon or evening. No problem, as we were the people closing the park every night. It's the way we prefer to tour, and as I said, we were always able to ride everything, sometimes multiple times, with the aid of FP-. I am apprehensive about our next trip, as I know FP+ will effect the way we tour; it seems almost everything has longer standby lines than ever before, but none of us is willing to do rope drop every day of the only week's vacation we get all year long. OP, hearing about your experience at Epcot is only adding to my apprehensions, but we will have 3 FP+ at Epcot (if I can figure out what we want to use them for). We usually travel to WDW in August, over Columbus Day weekend, or during the first week or two of March (college spring break).
Boma is breaking my heart right now, as it's our favorite but it's getting hard to justify the price. DD wants to try Jiko for her b-day dinner, so we probably won't go to Boma this time around. At $40 per person, plus tip, it's hard to justify the money for a buffet, regardless of how much we love it, plus it seems like a lot of African food for a 5 night trip. Just for the record, I tip 15% at sit-down restaurants, 10% at buffets, regardless of where I am. I will tip more or less, depending on the quality of the service.
Regarding your resort, we really enjoyed CSR, but to each her own opinion. We usually eat b'fast in the room as we are coffee/fruit/yogurt/cereal folks and then meals in the parks (both QS and TS) so distance to the "center" of the resort wasn't an issue for us. I can see how that could be annoying, though; one of the things I hate about POP is the long haul to the food court all the time (or at least, before they had fridges in the rooms!). We are staying at BWV (rented DVC points) in a studio on our next trip. We'll see. I hope the proximity to Epcot and DHS is worth the price, but I got a good price on it, and spent more on a suite, per night, in Manhattan last weekend. I am expecting the BWV studio to be smaller than I would like, so am trying to temper my expectations with what I am pretty sure is reality.
Colleges- most of the schools around here are having finals this week, with graduation on Mother's Day weekend. I also know of several colleges that aren't out until the end of May. Public school in the state won't be out until sometime during the 3rd week of June, if not late, and same with most of Massachusetts. ("Data" collected from myself/friends who teach public school in ME, my brother who teaches in MA, DD and DH who are students/faculty at different universities.) I do not think that college ending has the same effect on attendance in May as it does in early March, when virtually every college I have ever heard of has a week or two off, and in the northeast, all are desperate for sunshine and warm, so they head for Disney. Once public school is out, DIsney will have packed parks!
I think we all judge "value" differently, but with the price hikes and what I perceive as limitations on fastpasses, I, too, question the value of WDW to our family. I KNOW we'll have a great time on our next visit, but I, too, and wondering if it'll be the last trip for awhile.
I didn't love Boma as much on my last visit, either. 
