Walt never did treat people equally. I was there in the 50's and 60's. You got what you paid for. There were lots of things you paid for once you got in, including every restaurant. And, you got a book of tickets. Run out of E tickets and you bought a new book, if you could pay for it. Walt ran Disneyland to make money and he knew all the tricks. And don't forget Club 33 which was his idea. Walt had an 'Uncle Walt' public personna but read a bit and you'll discover the ruthless businessman he could be.
Yeah I know about what a hard case Walt could be, and that there's always been some perks for VIPs, but your comparisons still aren't exactly apt.
1: Restaurants - whatever you were ordering in the restaurant, as long as you were ordering, you were fine. A person ordering a steak didn't necessarily get a better table than someone ordering a burger. Likewise, ordering food in the park was not a requirement of getting in the park. Your comparison would seem to argue that either meals should have been included with the cost of the ticket or people who didn't buy food would be subject to eviction. I remember a trip to DL with my family when I was 7, the youngest of 5, my dad was a cop so our funds were limited (for example, he bought a junked up microbus, restored it, used it to drive us from NJ to Cali and back, we stayed with relatives, and when the trip was over he sold the microbus and that paid for the trip). When dinnertime came, we went back to the parking lot, broke out the cooler, sandwiches and chips and soda/juice for everyone, we went back in with no hassle from The Man...unless those ice creams we got was a concession. Literally.)
2: Tickets - yes, wealthier people could afford to buy more tickets and go one more rides or ride certain attractions more times, but generally speaking they couldn't buy a EE ticket that gave them priority in line over someone an E ticket. Meanwhile, people could walk around and enjoy all the street entertainment and parades without ever paying for a ride ticket.
3: Club 33 - was just that, a "club" that was on park grounds. Somewhat of an island unto itself, an embassy that didn't follow the rules of the rest of the park.
Walt knew how to make money, but he also employed the more-flies-with-honey technique quite a bit too, getting people into the park and then creating such a "magical" place people didn't care about the money flying out of their wallets. Conversely, the pay-one-price-ride-all-you-want standard now may seem more egalitarian, but the prices certainly don't just keep in line with inflation.
