If Disney prices people out why is it still packed?
It is not packed.
Look at the food area. They "encourage" people to do mobile ordering and have 2 lanes with humans open (like Walmart with self-check out) vs the way it was in 2019 where almost all registers had CMs taking orders from both the left and right side. This sure looks like longer lines and heavier crowds, but it is not. You just wait twice as long for over-priced food that has dropped in quality.
Disney let many of the CMs go in 2020 and only a portion of them were brought back. In addition, Disney has had layoffs since. They have substantially dropped the number of CMs that service guests. This is not only for dining, but also in the stores, rides, guest relations, etc.
Disney has closed and shrunk many of the original stores in Downtown Disney (springs). When people go to Disney, they do not visit DTD to shop at Sephora, Lacoste, Levi's, etc. They want Disney. Much of that no longer exists and what does exist has only a fraction of the product. As a result, there is more movement in the outside areas, more in and out of the stores. Also, DTD is free and appeals to locals and people there on business. Also, check-out lines are longer due to the lack of open registers for Disney-owned stores.
Wait times for buses is longer because they do not have the number of bus drivers they did pre-2020. It may seem like things are more crowded, but when a bus comes along every 30 minutes instead of every 12, it just means the bus is packed and many have to stand. It does not mean the crowds are larger.
Ride times are long for various reasons. One major reason is this awful Genie system and everything that comes along with it. And even bigger....rides break down A LOT these days. That sends riders to other attractions, which increases those lines. Example: Went in March, compliments of the in-laws. There isn't that much to do in AK compared to other parks. On the day we went, Dinosaur, FoP and Everest were all down at the same time. Had a maintenance engineer come rescue us from Dinosaur. He said this happens constantly. He said he was with Disney for 27 years at that point and never saw the maintenance issues and break-downs like he has over the past 3 years. He mentioned he liked his job, but the hours are now very long, a lot of OT and every park has issues like this. This was not a guy who just "complained". He was the lead engineer for RotR and FoP.
Also, on of our MK days, PPF, Space Mountain, the TTA, Pirates and Big Thunder were all down at the same time! That is a lot to send people to other lines and increase wait times. They only cleared the line for Big Thunder and Space Mountain. For the others, guests stayed in the line and waited. (I did not think they did that) During that time, the lines built and a CMs never told the guests getting in the line for PPF or Pirates it was broken down. We only knew because we asked!
In both EPCOT and Disney Studios, there were ride breakdowns. We were there 6 days. Happened every park day.