I've never had a bad experience on Kilimanjaro, honestly. People have always said it's better in the early morning and I don't doubt that, but I've never ridden it and been disappointed or felt like I was shorted out on what I wanted. The sheer scale of that attraction-bigger than DL park by itself, in fact-is difficult to put into words. RSR is great but can't compete on scope.
Mystic Manor is smaller from a scale perspective, certainly, but I feel like as an overall package it's a stronger attraction. There isn't any of the weirdness that is sometimes neglected when discussing RSR (ex. why are we going through the town we walked through outside, but now we're inside? Why does the background scenery inside sort of just taper off and end?).
Journey, as an entire package, I would say surpasses RSR. Its presence in the park and the area makes a statement, and the queue and process of getting to the attraction is much more elaborate. There isn't a nice outdoor atmospheric section, but the indoor scenery is much grander and more impressive. The fatal flaw of Journey is that the actual attraction is short, and I will grant you that 100%. However, otherwise I can't really find fault with the experience, and while the fast part of RSR has its own benefits (competition, duration), the fast part of Journey is the most POWERFUL moment on any of these rides. That drop out of the mountain provides a catharsis that is certainly unmatched in TT or RSR and is more satisfying than some entire roller coasters. The whole package, and the effect on the entire park, its sheer presence, is more impactful than RSR. I'd argue that while RSR has a significant presence in Cars Land, its main impact on the park itself is that it's the only ride in the place that stands up to what's next door.
In terms of Shanghai Pirates, if we are to make those arguments, could we not also ding RSR for following the same basic template of its predecessors (ex. slow start through interior scenes, various elevation changes, fast part at the end), and bringing little to the table that was truly original or expanded upon what the ride system could do? The increased depth and detail of Journey's sets could stand apart positively from Test Track; did RSR really push any further envelopes with the ride system or the scope of the whole enterprise? I would argue that Shanghai Pirates is enough of a template change from what came before, with the changes in ride system and so on, to justify itself as its own thing despite the nods to the classic attractions. Whereas RSR is a solid attraction but wasn't really a groundbreaker in any meaningful way.
So yeah. It's in the conversation, definitely has lots of merits to it, but I'm not sure there's any scenario where I would personally say that it was the best Disney exclusive attraction in the world.
