As a Chicagoan used to dealing with O'Hare, I do think the badness of LAX is somewhat overstated for people used to dealing with big, busy airports. It's not optimal, but as long as you leave a decent-sized time buffer to account for how long it takes to get through (or out of) LAX, it's not that terrible. I will say the rental car shuttle experience leaves something to be desired, as does getting out of the airport in general, so if they're indeed working on that, good! It's overdue. But personally, I would take LAX in a heartbeat over my experience with LaGuardia in 2016.
SNA is a dream in comparison. Simple, modern-feeling, spacious, with typically reasonable and breezy security and on-site car-rental (with the caveat that some of those rental car offices are like unventilated closets-not the most pleasant). I don't necessarily love the restaurant options, though it's not like LAX is any better on this front either, really. Also way, way closer to Disneyland.
I would be open to flying into or out of other airports, but I simply have never seen a direct flight from Chicago to Long Beach, Ontario, or Burbank.