First off - when you buy a timeshare you DO own part of the resort - any timeshare. That is what a timeshare is, and that is how they work.
I have a deed of real property, filed in the State of Florida, that shows I own a percentage of Saratoga Springs Resort. I pay property taxes on that property and if I already did not own other properties, I could deduct them from my federal income taxes.
The same thing goes for other time shares as well.
Now just because you own a portion of a property does not mean you can do what you want with it. A co-op is the same thing (as opposed to a condominium) In a co-op you own a portion of the entire apartment building, and your deed specifys you have a right to use Unit A for example. In a condo you actually own Unit A ("walls in") and the condo board owns the common areas. There are certain tax ramifications for each, and some are harder to sell and/or buy than others.
Anyway, so yes you own real property when you buy into DVC. However the deed states what you can and cannot do with it. The deed also states that the ownership of the property will revert back to DVC after so many years. You could do this with a house if you wanted to. You could sell a house and include that the ownership reverts back to you after 40 years. Good luck trying to find a buyer for that however.
Now, as far as the property reverting back to DVC, that could be a bad thing, or that could be a good thing. When you own a time share that "never dies" you own it for ever. Just like owning a house, you have to pay taxes on it, and because it is a time share you also have to pay maintenance on it. Many times, when you no longer want that time share, you cannot sell it. Nobody wants it. You are on the hook for the yearly payments forever. The person who built the timeshare does not want it back (because then THEY would be on the hook for the yearly payments). So what happens? You despetately try to unload the thing for next to nothing. Look on eBay, timeshare sites, and travel classifieds, there are many time shares for sale for a dollar. That is not to rent them, that is to buy the timeshare outright - for a dollar.
Now, here is what DVC does.
1) They take back the timeshare at the end of the contract expiration. So there is a limited time you have it. Sometimes timeshares are inherited and the kids end up paying the dues and still cant unload it. DVC has a definite end date.
2) DVC has right of first refusal on any DVC resale. This means that if I wanted to sell you my SSR contract for $100, DVC gets the first option to buy it at that price. They would buy it out from under you, and then sell it at at the current going rate. They do this becaue DVC properties are still in demand. This also has the effect of keeping the resale price of the contracts higher. If you wanted to buy a SSR contract on the resale market, you are going to have to pay upwards of $89 a point ( last I looked) because DVC will snap up any that attempt to sell for lower. This keeps the resale price high. This means that if I wanted to, I could sell my SSR contract, thus ending my yearly dues committment, and getting about $14,000 cash as well.
The robust resale market is one of the reasons I bought DVC. I have a number of friends who have timeshares (nice timeshares) that they would like to get rid of (airline flights change, schedules change, things like that) but they cannot because there is no resale market for them.
-dave
DV