GF is probably our favorite resort, hands down. We had a lagoon view hotel room last year, and a standard studio this summer. We really liked being in a separate building that was set away a bit from the rest of the hotel. In case you didn't know, even in the hotel, you are not in the main building where the restaurants, shops and check in are, unless you are staying club level. So for most people staying at the hotel, they will also have to walk a bit to get to the main building.
The villas are closer to the children's water play area and the pool with the water slide. I also like the check in process at the villas, with the concierge desks rather than the rather hectic line. The bathrooms in the villas are considerably nicer than in the hotel. Even in the studios, the split bathroom essentially has 2 showers.
While we liked being able to see fireworks from our balcony in the hotel, that view isn't guaranteed either, and we also enjoyed watching the monorail from our standard view balcony.
When we bought (resale) in the spring, BLT was about $40 pp less than VGF, and we hadn't yet stayed at the villas, so financially it was easier to buy BLT, but now that prices for most resorts resale have gone way up, VGF is a relative bargain now. When we stayed in August, we rented points at 10+ months out to get that standard studio. I just looked now at 7mo availability from today and tomorrow, and already you can't get the first 2 days (saturday/sunday, June 6-7) in a studio, either standard or lake view. So if you think you want to stay in a studio, I'd look at either buying at VGF (resale), buying lots of points somewhere else to cover a 1br (and even then maybe not getting it, depending on when you are traveling), or renting points before the 7mo window. We are likely doing 2 stays at our home resort, BLT, in 2018, and if we still love VGF we may rent our points out and then use that money to rent at VGF (or do a trade with a VGF owner) for when we want to stay at VGF.