Frankly, your anecdotal evidence is meaningless in the face of facts. The last two quarterly earnings reports for 2012 show that WDW attendance and resort bookings are down from the previous year.
I'm not arguing that things like princess merchandise aren't popular. However, Harry Potter merchandise has also been selling very well for Universal since WWOHP opened, and the merchandise in that land is not narrowly targeted toward young children. Indeed, Disney fans on these boards have been effusive in their praise for WWOHP merchandise; it's unique, appropriate for the land's theme, and very inclusive in terms of its appeal to different age groups. Disney has actually tried to replicate that success since WWOHP opened (i.e. LeFou's Brew/Red's Apple Freeze. I couldn't think of a specific merchandise example off the top of my head, but it's obvious that Disney copied the idea from Universal who has had enormous success selling Butterbeer). So, a business strategy that exclusively focuses on appealing to families with young children in order sell princess toys isn't the only way for the Magic Kingdom to be lucrative for Disney. Actually, in the long term, this narrow focus on the parents with toddlers demographic may prove to be detrimental to Disney. Unlike Universal, WDW has had the luxury of being able to coast on nostalgia and their past successes, but if this trend continues unabated I think there will come a time when the number of repeat visitors will become severely diminished. WDW will increasingly be seen as a one-time rite of passage, because of its history and past reputation alone, but people will not be interested in returning. Kids will begin to lose interest as they get older. As prices continue to rise, parents will see less and less value in returning to a place they think their kids have outgrown, and Disney will struggle to attract teens, young adults, and families with older children as first-time visitors.
I'm not just theorizing here; these effects may already be taking place. There is a very good chance that DCA will surpass Epcot as the third most-attended theme park in the US this year. It has been an impressive turnaround for a theme park that was one of the least visited Disney theme parks in the world a few years ago, and it wasn't accomplished by "targeting the children who will make their parents' lives miserable until they get out the credit card".
The bigger question here is why you keep bringing up Disney's stock price or your perceptions of WDW attendance/finances (some of which is incorrect) as a response to my negative opinion about one of their rides. Is that supposed to endear Disney's creative product to me? I don't choose to go to WDW just because they are a profitable business.
And the couple of times I've been through it, I witnessed some teenaged girls totally flip out as they walk through the mirror. If Disney had wanted to cater to children specifically, they'd have saved themselves a lot of money by not creating the mirror, Madame Wardrobe, or Lumiere. They would have kept it in the same format as the storytime show that used to be where Merida is now. 
