I was just thinking about II offering a few hundred high-quality locations compared to RCI offering a few thousand decent locations, but it applies in so many other ways, as well.
II offers nearly 2500 locations vs 4700 for RCI.
When you hear about II's "high-quality locations" understand that DVC filtered II's list down to only about 500 locations DVC members could actually use. They may well do the same thing with RCI.
Granted that won't return access to the entire roster of Four Seasons and Marriott resorts. But at this stage it's a little misleading to compare the top 20% of II with some of the dregs of RCI.
As for the question, I think we've past the point where DVC could ever be a small, exclusive club. I've heard some long-time members lament the passing of what they believe DVC used to be. They bought into the larger rooms at OKW, higher purchase minimums (230 originally) and a perceived higher class of owner that was willing to take a chance on DVC back in '91/92.
Disney COULD have made DVC a program on-par with Four Seasons fractional resorts ($250,000 purchase) and I'm sure some people would have loved that. But it isn't and it never will be.
Depending upon how one chooses to spend their money, DVC is certainly accessible to single-income families, divorcees, unmarried folks, those with 5-figure incomes, etc. They probably aren't going to build anymore 100-200 unit resorts like VWL and BCV because they sell-out too fast. DVC needs more points than that.
I'm sure Disney has considered a more elite offering like the Four Seasons development, but I think the deal with FS was a sign that they'd rather leave that market to someone else.
