I'm sorry, but I still don't see the argument. You seem to be under the assumption that because you are on the DDP, you couldn't be stealing the soda for someone else. The two aren't exclusive. You COULD steal it for someone else.
Seems highly unlikely to me, but perhaps you know better. I disagree with the concept of treating every customer as if they are trying to cheat the system. Most of the cases I have seen are about allegations that people are either (1) buying one mug and filling drinks for the rest of their party with it, or (2) are using their mug to fill up some third party container. If I had a party of 6 on the DDP, I could easily rotate through all 6 mugs and fill a third party container even with the 5 minute limit. It only impacts us if we try to do the right thing and each person uses their mug appropriately. That's usually how it goes with these types of restrictions. It most often only negatively impacts legitimate users.
It still could be a limitation, as they would need to integrate with the Disney system to determine these things - which right now is in flux (to put it mildly), and they don't want to wait, for whatever reason.
If they can add days on roll out, they can probably do the others. I don't know the specifics, but seems unlikely they couldn't do it if they really wanted to. They just don't want to. This is all about trying to make it easier for Disney, not for the guest. Much like MyMagic+/MyDisneyExperience, it is all about what it can do for Disney and not for the customer.
Of COURSE it is a choice - they could have chosen not to do this yet and wait, or they could choose to use the tech out of the box - for now - and integrate it later when there is a stable interface to integrate to.
Yes, so instead of defending what sounds like a poorly implemented solution, I'm going to call it out for what it is. Disney, a company that posts massive profits, is taking a shortcut for their own benefit that has little positives to offer for the guest experience. Another example of the guest experience decline. One of the tenets of great customer service is never making it easier for yourself at the expense of your customer. A lot of the changes implemented in recent times by Disney have been all about making it easier for them to bank more cash, while making the guest experience more complicated and confusing.