I get what you're saying. But some people actually buy it for a variety of very valid reasons, not just because they are naive. I get that there are 2 sides to this discussion. But it really sounds like a marketing success to me. As long as it works for us, we'll get it. When it doesn't, we won't. We travel in slow times though, stay at a value and get free dining. So for us it's the best deal we will get at a value resort. It's a slam dunk. When we have to pay for it, we'll put pencil t paper and make a informed decision. If others aren't doing that, then they really have nobody to blame but themselves.
Free dining is an entirely different story. Since the exact $$ value of the plan is less important, free dining is still an excellent value for many families.
I feel as if -- WHen the dining plan was created (original structure and pricing), it was Disney offering a dining discount to all, as an incentive to stay on property. Now, Disney has decided they don't want to offer a dining discount incentive anymore, for most of the year. So for the non-free dining periods, they have hiked up the prices so much, that they are basically telling consumers, "we don't want to give you a discount anymore on dining, but if you want to just throw money away, we will gladly take it!"
Then for select time periods, they still want to use the dining discount incentive to fill rooms -- thus free dining.
So turning to simply purchasing a dining plan -- Are there "legitimate" reasons for buying a dining plan? Sure, some. If you have multiple children on the plan and want to do a lot of character meals, it can still save you a fair sum of money. We can dispute whether the psychological benefit of "pre-payment" is a legitimate reason to buy the plan, or just a psychological excuse to overeat. (You often hear people talking about how they love knowing everything is already paid for -- so they can then order anything they want. Which I often translate to -- oh well, guess I have to eat dessert since I already paid for it).
How many people who have crunched the numbers, who have no intention of ordering lots of desserts and drinking lots of soda, or of having steak at every meal --- How many of those people would still choose to purchase a dining plan? Not too many, I believe. For all the people who talk about the joy of prepayment, I've still never seen anybody ever claim they use the plan, knowing they aren't going to get the value. Nobody ever says, I'm only going to order $40 worth of food, but I want the $55 plan for the joy of prepayment! Nobody says, "I skipped desserts and soda, and ate moderate priced entrees.. only spending $35-$45 per day, but I'm so glad that I had the $55 plan just in case I wanted steak and dessert!"
I do agree it would be great to add TiW eligibility for all. I don't think I really understand why a FL resident can get it but I can't. They might in fact have a much higher profit margin on me since I can't get there to use it as much.
I believe they could sell a TiW card to all guests, and make profit from it.
But I understand their logic ---
When you're at Disney on vacation, you're not price comparing the restaurants to off-property. You're not saying, "hmmm, the lobster is $66 at Narcoose's but $50 at the seafood restaurant 20 miles away."
So the TiW card is a way to make Disney dining attractive, to locals who can choose any restaurant in the area, whenever they want. Which in turn gives them extra incentive to buy Florida resident passes, gives them extra incentives to visit the parks and spend money in general. And even with 20% discounts, Disney is making a profit on the food itself.