Yes, it really wouldn't be a smart move for Disney to throw a lot of money at somehow trying to crush Epic during its first year. What do they really gain by that? It's not going anywhere whether it struggles or is a smash hit in year 1 and it is an open question whether even if it opens to sell-out crowds this is a net negative for Disney.
For all my problems with Disney management, what they're doing seems a lot smarter: pull the levers of pricing and add some relatively minor new offerings to keep attendance stable and have things ready to go in the coming years once the hype dies down in the hope of growing attendance. Presumably, they also hope there will be less economic uncertainty by the time these things start to open, but that's not necessarily by design.
This announcement isn't aimed at me, but a strategy to encourage people to bring young children makes sense if they are thinking longterm about the importance of nostalgia to their theme park business. I imagine their surveys show price and lack of activities for younger kids (too small for the rides, etc.) come up on surveys as reasons not to bring them, so these seem like lateral responses. As an aside, I did notice HKDL very directly catered to younger children, with lots of little play areas scattered around the park which also seemed smart to me.
