Back in the day (early 90's), I waited three hours in 90 degree heat at Six Flags to get on Batman. I must have been 11 or 12, and Id just hit the height requirement of 48 inches. The ride broke down when there were 10 people in front of us. We waited another 45 minutes to get on. And it was the *most amazing ride ever*.
Nowadays, if I dont have a Fastpass for something with more than a 15 minute standby line, I wont bother.
My point is that if you have enormous expectations of something, a lot of times, you wont mind dealing with a lot of not so great conditions in order to have that experience. Why do people drive to Walt Disney World? Because the experience of being there is worth it to them, even though a lot of times they are spending four, five, six times the hours in the car than they would on a plane. Why do people give terrible Broadway shows standing ovations? Because they paid $136.50 for their seat, and damn anyone to heck who is going to tell them they wasted their money on a sub-par night of theater.
As to the whole Universal/WWoHP v. Disney argument, its been the same back and forth since Universal opened. The bottom line is that most people arent going to spend a week going to Universal. Until and unless they expand the WWoHP, there isnt enough to do fore more than a few hours there, other than wait on line.
Disney doesnt need to answer Harry Potter. It needs to address its own guest issues.