It's all people's preferences I suppose. Personally, I've never found the resorts to have any major shortcomings at all. I know people's mileage varies though and there will naturally be a fair share of bad experiences as there are anywhere. Obviously, the biggest premium is convenience and they charge you through the nose for it if you want a decent (moderate class or above) hotel room. It's the same with choosing a house in a metropolitan area. My boss lives less than 2 miles from our office, but his house easily costs 3 times what mine does. I live 20 miles from the office and have to deal with a longer commute everyday. However, my house is also about 60% bigger than his and my yard is 3 times bigger (at a 1/3 the cost.) I could live closer in, but I'm willing to lose out on some of the convenience factor because I can get more house for the buck living farther out.
We've always stayed onsite and will be doing so again next time because it's part of our land/sea cruise package. However, we'll also be going down a day early and staying in a very nice 2 bedroom Marriott suite for only $139 a night. I realize $139 is still not exactly cheap, but a room of that class in WDW would easily be about 3 times that. And since we plan on just crashing/resting up in our hotel that first day I wanted to make sure we got a nice place. So we'll finally have a chance to compare. Maybe next time we'll stay off site if the drive's not too bad. I DO think there's something fun and special about staying on site and since it's not like we go down there all the time, I don't mind splurging a little when we're there for the convenience factor.
Those hotel chain rankings sound about right, although I've personally always thought Embassy Suites was always EXTREMELY overrated. Very cheap beds, furniture and general amenities at most of the ones I've stayed at. I'm a Marriott Rewards member so I naturally favor Residence Inn and Courtyard most of the time although I do like Hampton Inn as well. Of course, any hotel chain can have exceptions and these are most common in busy areas that are constantly full.
