^Booking Kidani through Disney central reservations is different from making a DVC reservation and what the Disney site refers to as standard view is often not the same as what DVC identifies as standard view rooms. I know that I can request near the Pumba elevastor for DVC standard rooms and potentially get savanna view, but I do not know if that is true for rentals through Disney, although you might want to try it. Near the Rafiki elevator would get you close to the pool no mater what your view designation, but again I do not know whether you can even make that request through Disney's central reservations.
As to significant differences: (a) though the DVC reservation is most often cheaper than a reservation through Disney, a Disney reservation comes with daily cleaning service and the DVC reservation does not -- you get daily emptying of the trash and some replenishment of toiletries on the fourth day; (b) typically reserving through a DVC member means you will have to pay up front for the room and will not have the ability to cancel and get money back; (c) the reservation can be modified only through the member and making a modification, such as adding a day or moving your dates, can be far more difficult to do than with a Disney reservation, e,g., by 7 months out the member might not even be able to add days or change the dates because other DVC reservations may already have filled the rooms available to DVC; (d) for DVC, requests have to go through the member who is renting (who makes requests through DVC Member Services) and you cannot call directly, except that beginning at 60 days out you will be able to check-in online and use the request section of the check-in pages, which has far fewer requests that can be made than requests that you can make through the member, e.g., the online request pages do not have any request for near the Rafiki or Pumba elevator; the only similar request you can make with online check-in is "near an elevator," a completely useless request without being able to name the elevator, because there are multiple elevators, and such a request could put you in any room in the building; (e) with Disney you have complete control of your reservation, but with DVC, the member actually has complete control including the ability to cancel until your arrival date, i.e., you need to trust the member not to do something wrong; (f) any request for a dining plan must go through the member and must be made and paid for by no later than 48 hours out; (g) buying park tickets is always a completely separate transaction from getting a DVC reservation.
As to some of your other questions: (a) pool is far enough away that you really do not get any pool noise from any room; (b) one might want to request lower floor for more direct view of animals but that should be requested only if you know you have savanna view -- with other DVC standard view rooms you should request high floor to achieve any decent view at all; (c) as to DVC standard rooms near the Pumba elevator overlooking Pembe, I am not aware of any particular pictures except for two YouTube videos that are actually walk-throughs of the same standard view Grand Villa (the very large 3BR unit) in that area and have some shots of the views from the balconies, see
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy38d42R_2o&t=227s and
www.youtube.com/watch?v=31lNSVRzelc; (d) the new resort parking fees do not apply to any DVC reservation even if it is a rental by the member (I have personally confirmed that through DVC).