I've (and many others) have been predicting this for years.
It's simple .. why would they give away for free what people are willing to pay for? Plus . .with EMM they don't even have to run all the rides.
This is the kind of stuff that really P's me off about Disney, and many people on these boards.
I and many others predicted this when they started announcing the hard ticket after hours events (not EMHs or parties), and we were basically told to shut up because EMHs were still available (although they had already been greatly reduced). But all the juice drinkers insisted that Disney wouldn't do that, EMHs will still be there (I'm sure they'll say, well there are still MORNING EMHs, stop complaining, as if thats the same thing). Same thing they said when FP+ was introduced and we told people eventually regular FP would be gone completely, and that (already even then) we foresaw them eventually charging for these new electronic FPs. But nooooo, we were told, Disney would never do that, shut up, legacy FP was still available.
And then when they DO the crap, people said they would NEVER do, instead we hear "well, Disney is a business, they SHOULD do this to make more money". Parking Fees, Hard Ticket events, Delivery Fees, Paid for FPs.
And then, people will try to say "Well, if you don't like it, just don't do it, it doesn't effect you" - except it DOES. All these things effect everyone. It means there are fewer hours you have access to in the park with your regular ticket price, which means the value of that ticket is going down, despite the price going up. It means what you used to use to justify the higher price of disney rooms, is diminished because now you ARE paying extra for parking, you have less EMHs, and non-disney hotels have 60 day FP booking. It means that for every person who pays for an FP, or gets a tour, they are taking up ride Capacity (which doesn't change) from someone who bought a regular ticket. Every time a person rides a ride on a tour or a paid FP, that's one less ride available to everyone else, the pool is finite. All of these extras come at the cost of everyone else, and prices have increased at that.
Ugh ---- end rant ? I think I even stayed within the rules.