On the other hand ...
The guests who make the bot-assisted reservations are positively affected.
And if the bots help Disney to maximize bookings by helping people to find their preferred reservations, then Disney is positively affected as well.
As (I think) I posted before, whenever you see a middleman find his way into a free market, it's not causing friction, but it happens because there already IS friction. The friction (or inefficiency) presents an opportunity for a middleman with special skills to step in, and help the buyer buy and the seller sell.
Disney caused friction by making a fairly clumsy reservation system that doesn't allow people to make themselves available for openings that might arise in the future. In other words the Disney system doesn't support a waiting list. It's unfair and causes friction because many people, possibly a majority of people, can't or won't sit in front of their computer banging on Disney's reservation system all day hoping for a dinner reservation to become available. That's on top of the already pretty ridiculous idea that you need to decide exactly when and where you're going to eat in 6 months.
Given the fairly dumb and (to some) annoying requirement to book dinner reservations months in advance, a middleman who significantly eases the amount of work that's involved and increases the odds of getting what you want is a net positive.
It is a net positive for those who don't mind paying a concierge service. For those of us who are independent and frugal, it is detrimental.
According to Marina Krakovsky, there are five types of middlemen:
The Bridge spans distance that can take the form of physical distance, social distance or time.
The Certifier helps us determine quality of the good or service.
The Enforcer ensures that the parties to an agreement perform as agreed.
The Risk Bearer either bears risk or aggregates risk so that it is reduced.
The Concierge makes life easier, reducing the time or cost of a transaction.
The dining sites really fall into the Concierge category by reducing the time of a transaction (reducing the time certain consumers spend searching for an ADR). But in doing so, they drive up the cost of the transaction for those willing to pay, and they drive up the time required for (and reduce the possibility of) obtaining an ADR for everyone else. The dining sites offered none of the other middleman benefits of the Bridge, the Certifier, the Enforcer, or the Risk Bearer.
This is indeed all well and good for those who are willing to pay for the additional concierge service, but not good for the majority of Disney customers who do not want to do that.
Because Disney already faces so many issues with people claiming that they are pricing out the middle class, Disney does not need other companies that are in no way affiliated with Disney to drive up the cost and frustration of planning a Disney vacation. They don't need other companies that make a Disney vacation seem like an elite vacation where the rich can buy themselves into shorter lines and hard-to-get ADRs rather than a family vacation.
The dining sites drive up costs for some and planning time and frustration for others, with no benefit whatsoever to the Disney company.
I agree that Disney's reservation system could be better. There is no question about that. But it is better for them to fix their reservation system than for us to have pay someone else to "fix" Disney's system.
I have had this conversation with my husband and he argues with me on the legal issues. His background is technology and mine is law, so we see things differently (so please don't be offended - I fully respect your opinion and appreciate your engaging with me on this topic- just as I appreciate my husband's difference of opinion). DH says that the courts are wrong for saying that companies have a property interest in their websites. He says Disney could easily fix this issue with their technology rather than having to take legal steps to prevent the bots from hitting their system. I don't know enough about technology to understand the nuances of how Disney might do that, but he says it can be done. Who knows? Maybe they are working on that right now.
Personally, I hold deep animosity toward scalpers and hate paying others to do what I can do myself for free (yes, I have to deal with some middlemen, but in the case of obtaining ADRs, I really don't need anyone else's help). So I am glad the sites are gone.
From a legal standpoint, I look forward to seeing what happens with technology cases like these.
I hope you get all the ADRs you want on future trips one way or another.
