I don't disagree with you at all on your rationality of why what happened, did happen.
I'm very excited about the possibility for the future.
I just don't think that Dino-rama was the best soulution. Primevil Whirl might have fastpass, but that does not mean the same thing as E-ticket. Fastpass only makes a wait for an attraction more efficient, it does not guarentee it to be have E-ticket standards.
Will people ride it? Sure! I'll be one of them, it was a lot of fun. But will people have a higher opinion of AK just because they had a fun 90 second attraction, that most other non Disney parks have? Probably not.
The question asked was would you rather wait 5 years for an attraction done well? Or have something that can be delivered quick.
I realize AK had it's issue to deliver something quickly, but a quick fix is not always the best long term solution. Nobody is going to book a trip to WDW, based on this alone, most people booking a trip won't even realize it's a newly added attraction until they get here and see it.
Why not work with what they had? They had a fossil lab, and the Jubilee.
Epcot, for example is rehabbing an attraction JIYI, at the same time, they continue the MIssion Space project. That's only taken them about 6 months to hope an improved atttraction will bring people in. Not to mention it's still the park that recd the latest major Eticket attraction, Test Track, and was still picked to get yet another.
I liked Primevil Whirl, more then I thought. But I don't think it will have any major influence on park attendence. It might make the guests that go a bit happier then before they had it, but it will make just as many others critical of Disney's new ways.
AK needed more attractions, there is no doubt, but it had this problem for over 2 years, and then took 2 years to deliver, which brings us to 2002.
I'm not disputing that Excavator would have been delivered by now, but Dino-rama took resources, and it did at least delay what may have been next on the table for AK. I just don't think that Dino-rama justifies what could have been started sooner. If an E-ticket is the solution, all the reason to get started, not smoescreen the problem with a carnival ride with some cardboard.
Nobody thinks oh I want a cool mouse coaster, what park should we go to? And then decides Animal Kingdom. It's simply going to be a nice surprise, that gives guests another 90 seconds of a spin (with a 30 minute wait or so to analize), and then walking off will wonder, "that was fun, but so what did that have to do with an Animal Kingodom?"