I will add some anecdotal thoughts on this matter regarding the Hub.
There is a indoor shopping mall near where I live and it is as old as I am (for reference purposes, I am 45). I can always remember it being there even as a kid and it was a place where everyone went as it was the only mall nearby. This is before the wonderful golden age of the strip mall began.
The mall had a huge fountain in the center, with the only second floor section located in the atrium above the fountain. The fountain had lighting effects and it actually danced at certain times, similar to but certainly not as grand is the fountain in EPCOT. There was a restaurant that had seating inside and outside so that you could look down onto the fountain and/or people watch. It was a nice place for lunch as the restaurant had some licensing agreement whereby they had Looney Tunes animatronics and shows were put on at certain times each day. At Christmas, up and down the wings of the mall, it was decorated everywhere. They even had little village areas set up where you could walk through and look at animatronic elves and reindeer. It really was great, especially for little kids. It was THE place to go to see Santa Clause and get your photo taken. It was truly a customer focused enterprise at the time.
Switch to today. The fountain is gone and the nice restaurant with the animatronics on the second floor was gutted and replaced with a food court that sells not great food. At Christmas, the decorations have been cut back to naught, and where the fountain stood is now the - for lack of a better term - Santa meet and greet. The Christmas village that was erected was replaced with merchandise kiosks - you know, the cheap stuff that people rarely buy. And where the big fat man sits is now some cheap, two-walled structure with a fake fireplace. It is sad how this has transformed.
I am certain that this story is similar for some of you regarding your experience with WDW. This is my analogy to those that have grown up visiting WDW since the 70s and 80s. You remember when the MK, even though large, could probably almost seem intimate at times. Guests were not herded in, stuffing the park to almost insane levels of capacity. The park, and the features of the park, dominated the different lands, and things were added instead of removed; and from looking at some of the photos people have posted, the hub acted as more of a park as opposed to a large, open gathering place of worship before the castle.
Now, I will state that I don't agree with some of the opinions expressed in this thread. I have been through the finished sections of the Hub this year and I feel that it is an improvement over how it has been. The sad reality is that it will never be how it was. The economics and the cannibalistic nature of capitalism in today's society almost make certain that a Hub dominated by trees in a park like setting will never happen again. Why spend more money to make more money, when you can simply just make more money by adding more people as opposed to attractions? The Board is happy + the shareholders are happy = job well done.
It is also easy for us to sit where we are and type angry responses on a forum thread, believing that we would obviously act in a more altruistic fashion, placing guest satisfaction before the almighty dollar. I have really thought about this. If I had a business that was centered on entertainment, would I be a martyr for the guest experience? Would I be able to sit in my tower and say, 'you know, instead of making X dollars more, how about I sacrifice increased net profit so the average guest of today's society is happier, even though they seem more rude and take less pride in how they conduct themselves (on average - I know that we are all ideal park guests
)?' It is a shame that Walt could not live forever. I never knew the man, but he really had a different set of values it would seem.
Now again, I can close by saying that I am only a visitor of WDW starting in the late 2000s. So to me, I can't sit here and castigate how WDW is now versus how it was 30 to 40 years ago, as I never experienced it. Maybe I have an advantage over some people here, as my frame of reference is recent, so I can't denigrate the company for an atmosphere I have never experienced.
Spirit stated that those that like the Hub of today don't know what they are talking about. I disagree in that I can't condemn something, not having experienced the 'great version' of several iterations ago. I only know what I know now. To me WDW is still an amazing place to visit. I guess I will be interested to see how my opinion changes in about 30 to 40 years from now.
