Doing this as long as I have, I have mixed feelings. I understand the personal pain of facing a major increase and realizing that you either flat out cant afford it, or that even if you can the value is just not there anymore. I've always compared Disney more to a relationship, where they really can break your heart, and it's devastating. When I thought we'd lose my Mom's Silver Pass upon her death, I cried and that was with feeling WDW wasn't really "worth it" anymore. Thankfully, that didn't happen (but I wonder what kind of chaos they are going to unleash upon those). It hurts that bad, anyway.
But at the same time, I've always felt that Annual passes should NOT be the choice for people "just on their yearly vacation." It should be a small group of people who either can visit quarterly, monthly (or weekly, or daily). At $800, if you believe WDW (including parking and photos) should cost $50 a day, that only means you have to visit 16 times. So 4, four day trips for a hypothetical DVC member, or 2 weeks and a long weekend, or most months going once, with 4 double ups. That's not really unmanageable for a certain group of people. I'm okay with the idea that people are "priced out" of APs. I don't like the phrase "Disney isn't a charity," I believe Disney should be mindful of the finances of their base, which should include the middle class, but at the same time, I don't want one group to be paying through the nose, while another is paying $10 a visit either (at $800, that is a 'once a week' visitor).
Disneyland is harder to break even. When we lived in AZ, I would have the premium and my husband would have the deluxe. The most we visited was 5 times, 3 days each, with a few more days in July. So maybe 20 days a year. At $1049 that would work out to $52.45, so barely worth it. At the low point, which was like 11 days that's $95, and maybe hoppers would have been cheaper.
At the end, it's not the PRICE that bothers me, it's the attitude with which the parks were run. If WDW and DL were run like Tokyo Disney it would be easier. If they were building at the quality and speed of Universal, that would make it easier. But that's not the Disney we have.