I much prefer getting a room overlooking Grizzly Peak so the location of the DVC wing isn't great for me. We've stayed in the DVC wing in a normal room (views right at Goofy's Sky School). The walk was excessive IMHO and the views not all that great with the trees all grown up now unless you manage to get an upper floor or you have pool view if they put you in a room on that side. If I ever did an extended family trip, the Grand Villa (sleeps 12) would be an amazing treat however.
I'm not terribly jazzed on the location of the new DLH DVC tower, but it's the only place it was possible. We have ALWAYS stayed in the Adventure tower usually with DTD views (except that one time we had a pool view staying in the Adventureland Suite). It's beyond convenient, but I guess it isn't really that much further to the new DVC tower.
We did 3-4 nights in DVC at Aulani on rented points, and we were very much considering buying there given how nice our experience was.