I think a lot of the crowd issues also has to do with the very limited hours for the parks. Pre-covid we would see park hours from 8 a.m. to midnight at MK most nights during busier times but now you are lucky to find times past 9 - 10 p.m. I think the longer hours allowed people to go to the parks at their favorite times as opposed to being in the parks all day.
I agree and often observe that folks mean different things by "crowded". Here are two common definitions:
- There are lots of people in the park and it is hard to move around especially with strollers and ECVs.
- Lines for rides are long and one cannot go on as many rides.
In the past (pre-COVID) it may have been just as crowded as now (in the sense of #1) but if you were able to do smart touring you could avoid the #2-type crowds. This made it feel "less crowded" in the sense of #2 because you could get on a lot of rides.
"Smart touring" was pretty common knowledge around places like DIS:
- Maximize legacy FP
- run around to the FP machines all day
- "run with the bulls" at RD to TSM and Soarin', etc.
- use of "late FPs" (remember that?) when FP windows were not enforced - that was huge!!!
- Maximize FP+
- ride reservations 60 days in advance for onsite/30 days for offsite
- Arrive for rope drop and focus on rides for the first 2-3 hours
- Take afternoon breaks when parks were most crowded and it was hottest outside
- Stay until park closing when possible
- Avoid parks with morning EMH or park hop after maximizing morning EMH
- Use crowd calendars to choose which parks on which days
- Schedule down days from parks to rebuild energy so one could do all the previous
- And more depending on the age of your group
Now it appears one cannot get on as many rides with short lines. And folks have to pay for G+ and ILL$ to boot if they want the advantages formerly available thru FP/FP+. And the advantages are less e.g., only one LL ride per day while FP/FP+ rides per day were not limited.
Finally, in the legacy FP days one did not have to worry about IT malfunctions. Now if the Disney IT system messes up or the app malfunctions on your phone, the impact is much bigger on your day. This is stressful and folks feel like they have to screen shot everything to have proof.
Add all this together and even if the parks are just as crowded in the #1 sense, it makes it harder to do smart touring in the #2 sense. So folks say "parks are more crowded" and "it is awful and I will not go again anytime soon".
Are the parks more crowded now in the #1 sense? I cannot tell but the reddit link earlier in this thread says maybe they are not.
Are the parks more crowded now in the #2 sense? Yes, for sure, especially for those legacy FP and FP+ experts who stayed onsite and booked at the 60 day mark. Now it is harder to get on the same number of rides as before and you are forced to use Rope Drop and late night strategies to get on favorite rides.
I suspect other factors are at work (as mentioned by others in this thread) that make the #2-type crowds worse. Importantly are limited major shows that suck people out of line for rides for hours at a time, reduced park hours (although that seems to be changing in March) and understaffing of parks in general and rides in particular.
ETA:
I forgot to mention, but I understand that Disney's sweet spot for rides per day per guest is about 9. This is based (as I understand) on Disney surveys of guest satisfaction. If the average guest gets on 9 rides in a day, the average guest is satisfied. Thus with legacy FP, FP+ and now G+, Disney is trying to get the average guest on 9 rides. We around here are not average guests and we are not usually happy with 9 rides - especially if those rides are not headliners. I think in the old days it was pretty easy to get on 20 rides per day and repeat headliner rides.