Remember Walts vision was a park that the whole family could ride attractions together. I think that is one of the big reasons I like Disney. I,m not a super thrill ride person.
I don't think his vision was only to cater to the lowest common denominator.
You might also include the question... Why is Disney having to constantly bail Paris out because it isn't doing enough business to pay it's own way? or Why do people that live in Europe spends massive amounts of money to come to the states to get their Disney fix when they have one right there? I think the answer would be because it isn't what they want out of a Disney Park.
I tend to think that the single park pulling 10m visits a year on its own should be plenty to make a profit. It point to there being many issues, but I don't think you could call 10m poor attendance.
Certainly the reason I come to the US and not Euro Disney, is because for me Disneyland Paris has absolutely no magic about it whatsoever. Some of its rides are much better than in the Magic Kingdom, but theres an entire feel to it thats just missing. Neither am I that keen on France, which is a common thread in Britain.
We also don't really count a trip to a theme park in northern France (and its not very near Paris at all) to be a holiday. It's just a short-duration theme park trip that can be done visiting many of our local parks.
I agree and I'm not at all against more of the Spiderman type attractions. I just don't want to see a bunch of big steel structures sticking in the sky unless they can indeed theme it to be next to unrecognizable as "just a coaster". They were able to do that with Everest because of the enormity of the AK park, RnRC was hidden within a building, but, what the coaster advocates want to see are the tall, out in the open type monstrosities that would ruin the entire ambiance when it is totally unnecessary.
Maybe its me, but I don't see many people serious calling for huge rollercoaster, exposed steel type rides. They're asking for a couple of thrill rides. Heck, they don't have to be the most white-knuckle-rides, but just some genuine thrill rides. WDW used to build thrill rides, think Splash, Space, Thunder, Everest etc, but that was 10-20+ years ago and times have moved on. The problem is they haven't built a thrill ride for over a decade now.
If you look for what Universal is building right now, that's the type of thrill rides people want WDW to build in a special Disney way. Rides like Forbidden Journey, Gringotts, Spiderman, Transformers & Kong etc.
None of them are the most white-knuckle of thrill rides, yet they are all deniable thrill rides; and every single one above the thrill level of any ride at WDW.