I'm sorry you guys came in contact with "the bug". I thankfully was okay, also triple vaxxed, wore a kn95, and tested while I was there. Those at home tests travel well lol.
I felt a LOT of the same as you did. It was crowded and lines were long, but not as long as what Disney claimed. Walking drove me nuts though. People with strollers I swear are on a mission to kill. And thanks to phones no one looks where they are going. Touring Plans is definitely going by "the norm" and not taking into consideration that Disney is "easy" covid travel. No mandates for vax or testing. So if people had to pick somewhere to go where things are more lax, that's probably it. I think this past month was a combo of desperate people taking advantage of that and rescheduled trips. Its going to take a couple years to probably shake out for sure if January is now a busy month for real or not.
I agree about housekeeping as well. They definitely skipped one of the days they should have come into clean for me. I only had service once and it was just fresh towels and empty garbage. I know not to expect a lot, but it would have been nice if they were in twice during my stay and had at least also made the bed. The fact that you had the same problem in a deluxe hotel as I did in a value doesn't offer much hope though. Let's just hope staffing won't be so awful by September as I see you are going again like me. After that I don't see another WDW trip in my future until at least 5 years has passed. I would love to try to reschedule the 2020
Disneyland trip I lost though.
I also used Tiffany and loved them. Definitely will use them again instead of trying Mears or doing an Uber/Lyft. I know price wise its more, but its just so much more convenient to have that level of service.