It does need contextualization that Avatar was announced at the start of the partnership and nothing really had been done or known to Imagineering. It was an executive level partnership announcement. Anything announced for this D23 (for real, not blue sky fodder) should be at least 18-24 months further along and also less prone to strong partner oversight slowing it down… for better and worse!
The easier Uni analogy for Avatar is Super Nintendo World. Which frankly was announced 10 years in advance of Epic Universe and actually truly announced for Florida 9 years in advance. Not a criticism of either really, but WDW really could and should be constructing projects within 18 of today… if they want to of course. Projects that probably are going to align with Luigi’s mansion or the Zelda/Pokémon projects.
My point with that photo op is it was Disney's real response to Wizarding World
after they realized their previously intended attempt at the potter-swatter wasn't going to cut it and then they didn't actually open anything until almost seven years later.
Too little, too late.*
The Universal-Nintendo comparison isn't accurate because it did
not take them 10 years to open something as your post implies. They just didn't start with Orlando and they've always been clear about the major marketing moments promoting the current thing (Japan, Hollowood and
now Orlando).
They did say it was coming to all three but it's not like they strung people along about the timeline on that and as everyone likes to say for Disney with the Epcot spine " but COVID happened!
", right?
Also, that Avatar photo op wasn't just about a partnership for the parks. It was
literally depicting a ground breaking which of course, was a flat out lie because they put those shovels away and then continued to do Legend of the Lion King shows back there for years after clearing away the ferns and dirt they stuck there to snap that pic.
Modern Disney has a well documented record of selling the public on trips today with promises of what's to come years down the road,
some day and I don't know how but the snake oil has worked.
I feel like if we're lucky, that'll be how they respond, here. At least it'll be a step in the right direction from today where they don't even do us the courtesy of lying about plans to build something new when they show us the pretty artwork.
Not saying all this to toot Universal's horn for them but really, to point out how little Disney has been actually trying.
Is there any point at which Disney's paying guests stop making excuses for them and start expecting better from them?
*as awesome as one of those attractions is and as great as the place-making it really just wasn't nearly enough. Even today's proposed changes to AK are about replacements - not actual needed expansion.