So we agree that today's situation is different, and the WDW of today would certainly not be possible if not for the powers granted to the RCID.
Where I respectfully disagree is that RCID is needed to continue operating WDW. You rightfully pointed out EPCOT (the plans for the "city of the future"), much of which had never been done before in the world. This would require a well-oiled machine of local government to get the plans off the ground, something that the counties couldn't possibly pull off, even in the 70s. Not only that, but they did absolutely need RCID's bond issuing authority and various municipal powers to create the infrastructure needed to support the plans, akin, on a much smaller and less involved scale, to how CDDs are established for most new ground-up Central FL residential communities taking over our beloved citrus groves and cow pastures.
Since EPCOT never happened, and since the primary infrastructure is already in place and can easily be financially and logistically maintained (if forced to) and expanded when necessary by Disney, who owns the land it occupies already, I see little reason to continue affording them the special powers they were granted.
Of course, it is useful to have those powers, but they, just like Universal and the many other tourist attractions nationwide that don't have them (including Disneyland), can get along just fine without them. My position is that no company should enjoy those powers, at least not in perpetuity. That said, I would have wanted to see dissolution happen decades ago, not as a thinly veiled political jab.
