it could very well be put on the Disney Resorts board instead.
Though I guess if it were placed there, it would be a mutiny?
Probably not -- they have them there pretty regularly. I suspect it's because you get a better variety of responses here. In the Disney Resorts forum, at least when I was first paying attention, the "onsite or off?" threads were usually dominated with "onsite all the way" votes, with very little actual discussion. It seems to me there are more people posting there recognizing that offsite can work fine too than there used to be, but it's still more balanced here, and there's more breakdown of the specific pros and cons here as well.
I think driving is a big part of it.
Agreed. Also the dining plan -- people who really like and use the dining plan are going to miss it staying offsite. Extra magic hours can make a real difference for some people, although I don't think it's as important to most as the transportation and dining plan, and a lot of people who loved EMH are greatly annoyed by the recent cut backs.
There's also the "Disney magic" or "being in the Disney bubble" thing, which I think is a real phenomenon. Numerous companies have done blind taste tests on various products where, for instance, people will not pick their "favorite" drink if said drink doesn't have the label on it. Some people would switch after being told they picked something else as their favorite, but others insisted that their preferred drink still gives them more pleasure than the drink they picked as best tasting.
When scientists measured brain activity while they were drinking, turns out with people who respond this way, the label actually triggers a totally different pleasure center (one associated with social activity, memory serves), so while the taste alone doesn't give them as much pleasure as some competitor, the labeled drink gives them more.
I'm thinking the same phenomenon happens with Disney -- the sheer fact that some people are staying onsite gives them an added boost of pleasure. If that's how someone is wired, then staying onsite really may be worth considerably more... to that person.
Or maybe "to that person at that point in time" -- I suspect some people who were once "onsite all the way" but have switched to offsite unless Disney has a real deal did once get a buzz out of the Disney label, but it just doesn't work that way anymore.
People are complicated.