As someone said earlier in this thread, there is no right answer for everyone. A lot of it depends on your budget and if money is no object, you will make choices different from those on a budget and I don't think people should feel compelled to discuss their financial situation in these forums. We have stayed both onsite at Disney and off-site and had a good time either way. It just depends on your budget and what are the things most important to your family.
I do agree that online reviews can be misleading as you tend to get a LOT of disgruntled people writing reviews over trivial issues. You also have no idea if those people ALWAYS write bad reviews or are simply making a big deal out of nothing. It seems likely that someone is more inclined to write a review when they have something to complain about. If I already see 20 good reviews, what is the point of me adding another review just to say the same good things?
I do agree that online reviews can be misleading as you tend to get a LOT of disgruntled people writing reviews over trivial issues. You also have no idea if those people ALWAYS write bad reviews or are simply making a big deal out of nothing. It seems likely that someone is more inclined to write a review when they have something to complain about. If I already see 20 good reviews, what is the point of me adding another review just to say the same good things?