THere have been a few misconceptions here and yes, I will step in and respond. So the BIG change that went into effect on March 20, 2011 with DVC is this...
... points that are purchased on the RESALE market (vs. direct from DVC) are no longer eligible to be used for the DISNEY COLLECTION of resorts - i.e. the WDW Resorts, DL Resorts,
Disney Cruise Line and
Adventures by Disney. They ARE still eligible to be used/traded out with RCI and any other collection available. This only affected contracts that closed AFTER March 20th - so everyone with an existing re-sale contract prior to that date was grandfathered in and can still use their points for a Disney Collection stay. Resale points going forward are ineligible for stays at any Disney Collection offering - but they CAN still be used at non-Disney locales within the RCI network (such as Las Vegas, Europe, Hawaii, etc)
One of the big rumors swirling in the DVC community is some sort of a pending "Tiered" Loyalty program that DVC is coming up with... only time will tell on that front, but by stripping away the ability to use those resale points for at least one classification of "trade" offerings within the DVC system... it's a pretty safe bet to say that more changes are coming.
DVC can and does change the perks offered fairly regularly. DON'T buy in for the perks. They are nice - but just that... perks. All you are buying are accomodations for the next 40-50 years. Period.
I first looked at DVC back in 1991 when it was brand new, and again in 1994 on our honeymoon. I wasn't able to join until 2007 - but sure wish I'd been able to do so early on. The first few years, DVC gave "Length of Stay" Tickets that were good through the year 2000, which as I understand them, were a ticket good for the number of nights associated with an individual trip, but I recall reading/hearing of some kind of cap on the number of entries per calendar year...so while like an AP, it wasn't a true AP good for 365 days. And with that, I cannot say definitively whether AP's have ever been free or not... but everyone that I've spoken with that joined during the 1990s have all said that AP's have never been free, and I've never been able to find anything in print about such a claim. The AP's have been discounted by $100 for the past several years, and those of us on the DVC boards hope and pray it continues - because like any other perk - they can take it away in a heartbeat.