My $70 per day room at a Comfort Inn right down the road from Universal did not charge me a daily parking fee and it included a microwave and mini fridge. I'm surprised that a room at Hard Rock for over 7x more cost per day does not have that.
But you would pay a parking fee at WDW, and to park in the Universal parking garage (to go to the parks) unless you have an AP for Universal.
In which case, you should have been able to get a lower rate on the rooms, unless you were booking at the last minute.
and HRH isn't the lowest price onsite Universal hotel with Express pass, Royal Pacific is. It consistently costs about $40-50 less. Even Portofino often costs less than HRH. HRH is the highest because it is located just a few feet from the park entrance, plus HRH = the extra morning park hour.
Mind, I often stay offsite myself, but there are some tradeoffs beyond just Express Pass. Getting from your hotel to the property is one. Then getting from the drop off/parking area to the parks is a bit further than walking to US from the HRH.
It matters quit a bit that you were solo. If a family of four chooses the HRH, then at the rates you quoted, they would be getting 2 days of Express Pass effectively for $349/4 /2= $43.62 each. Even if they only did 7 EP rides, that would be $6.23 per ride.
For myself, well, I am not sure why you only did 7 Express Pass rides. In a very easy going day, I easily do twice that number.
It is especially easy with a few re-rides. I often ride MiB 3 times in a row in about the amount of time it takes to walk through the queue +ride it. I've never kept precise track of how long it takes, but probably about 35minutes tops to ride it 3 times. Mummy is another easy re-ride. I have sometimes had a 10-15min wait with Express Pass, but that is about as high as it ever gets. It is usually more like 5-10min wait with EP. Meandering slowly between MiB and Mummy, I could easily get 6 uses of Express Pass in less than 2 hours on just those two rides alone. I am sure I regularly use EP 9+ times in just US in just a few hours without even trying. IMO, that's one of the huge pluses of Express Pass: unlimited re-rides with no scheduling, no phone and almost no wait. You just ride everything as much as you want, whenever you want.
At a mere 7 uses, EP at $170 cost you $24/rie, but you easily col d have raised that to 11 EP uses and lowered your per ride cost to $15.
