I agree with everything
@Lesley Wake said above. Yes, you can kind of see the parade from the west side of the garden, but it’s not a great view and you have people on the sidewalk in between you and the parade. You can see the middle/upper part of floats pretty well, but you miss some of the stuff more at eye level and below. It’s an OK substitute in a pinch, but wouldn’t be my primary plan of attack. Eg, I might be OK watching parade #1 from there, but then would watch parade #2 from a better spot.
In my never ending quest to give Disney my entire paycheck, we have done three MNSSHPs this year... at one we did the dessert party. I knew it would be going in, but to me the dessert party was a waste. We didn’t even eat any desserts, really just did it - to be honest - because I had made the reservation awhile back and kind of forgot about it until the day before. Planning fail on my part.
At my two other MNSSHPs we walked right into the hub about 5-10 mins before fireworks and had great spots. Sure it was more crowded, but it’s not so crowded that you can’t move around, like a normal HEA night.
I am not totally anti-dessert party on a party night - it can be a benefit for certain folks/party styles. But I likely wouldn’t do it again.