We do the tour every year, mainly for the priority seating for the parade (though DS would say it's for the treats!). For us, it's kind of like watching those old familiar holiday specials every year on TV - it's tradition.
Honestly, we find with the tours that so much depends on the group and the tour guide, you almost can't compare experiences. We've had fabulous tours where the people are friendly and fun and the tour guide makes sure everyone can hear and is very personable, and then we've had tours where the other people are kind of rude and pushy and our little ones were lucky to see or hear anything.
For example, when you get to the special seating for the parade, there are usually 2 rows of seats. In the friendly groups, we usually sit everyone's children up front so they can see and interact with the characters. When we were with the pushy group, the adults pushed ahead and took all the front row seats and the children of the other families couldn't see as well. Their attitude was "we paid big bucks for this and to heck with your kids".
There's not much you can do and the tour guides really can't intervene.