Honestly, I just find this ridiculous. They are trying to squeeze every inch of space and capacity into their existing parks instead of increasing capacity and building new parks because they're "not needed." I believe they won't make as much of a profit, but new parks and lands are absolutely needed to spread out the crowds and to keep people happy and wanting to come back. Now on top of that, you are making even purchasing tickets a giant pain for the consumer.
MM+ has done wonders with being able to cram as many people into the parks as possible without it being TOO miserable, but at some point there needs to be somewhere else for everyone to go. Even if it's not AS profitable. The parks were profitable in the 80s and 90s with much lower crowds, and without upsell hard ticket events and dessert parties. And ticket and hotel prices have risen faster than the cost of inflation. Yes, a new park will cannibalize the existing ones, and it needs to.
The only other options are 1) continue to price out the middle class. 2) deliver a worse product to the consumer. 3) increase hours drastically to spread out crowds.
If they don't want to build new parks, then I think 3 is their best option. Stagger park opening throughout the day so if people want an better experience, they can rope drop at 6 am, or stay up until 3 am for late park nights. You wouldn't even HAVE to increase overall park hours (though I think that should be done as well), you could just stagger them. And while I don't necessarily want this...you could move to two tickets per day at some or all parks. Allowing guests the option of which one the want to do each day, with the option to pay for both. Of course this would have to come with a giant reduction in ticket prices.
