I don't understand what you mean about not seeing anything about the economy being bad? The crowds INSIDE the park can be seen in some ways as indicative of a bad economy, because more locals are opting to
Disneyland instead of going out of town. Or do you mean the GCH itself was super-crowded? (I don't think Disney would ever say "The economy is bad; come to Disneyland!" but they WOULD offer deals to try to entice people into spending--great deals can fill hotels.)
Other people are a lot less cheap than I am, and that's just fine. I am sure you got an excellent deal!
For MYSELF, though, a deal that I would strongly consider taking advantage of would be $100/night or less (including taxes) for an on-site hotel. I MIGHT pay $150 for the GCH, but I'm still not certain I'd be able to fork over that much (probably for a night or two just for the experience, but almost certainly not for 4 nights unless I had 3 roommates).
That doesn't mean that paying more is not a great deal, as obviously rates for those hotels run much, much higher than what I would pay for them. It just means I too cheap to spend that much on a room myself!