I haven't read all 34 pages on this topic, but here's my take:
WDW is in the business to make money and they're going to do whatever they can/want to make money...lots of it. They can do it simply because they can. They know that there are people out there (like me) who will always want to go to WDW and will renew every year. They know there are people who will travel to WDW and spend lots of money regardless of prices. When you travel, it's an expectation that you're going to spend money..that's why you save and budget.
IMO, they do a great job with entertaining kids and adults and truly have something for the entire family; when you're at Disney, it feels special. Where else can you go and get that experience? I have read many posts about WDW not having enough thrill rides, taking away hamburger locations, not expanding enough, not building fast enough, etc. In every one of those posts, you have people who are for and against the changes' we must know that they can't satisfy everyone and we will all have complaints from time to time.
I am an AP and a FL resident who lives only an hour away, so maybe I'm not the best example...but my family and I go to Disney quite often. Sometimes it's just for the day, other times we may stay a night (on or off property) and at least a couple times a year we'll go for an extended time of at least 4 days. If we were to do this without an AP, it would be astronomically expensive. We also have the Disney Visa card, so we get quite a few rewards dollars every month to use, plus discounts on food and merchandise. Depending on how often we go in a certain month, we may not have to pay for our food at all by using the Disney Rewards dollars.
It does suck that the prices went up...but let's face it...it's not the first time this has happened and I promise you it's not the last. We also can't expect WDW to make everyone happy and us agree with every choice they make.
At the end of the day, I think the future is bright for WDW and the future attractions are going to be great. I look forward to taking my family back to WDW in the years to come and at the same time expect prices to go up. Going to WDW is our thing and that's what we enjoy doing, so we'll find ways to make it work.