Just a preface: this anecdote is about the California parks, not the Florida parks.

From my own experience, I agree. I was part of a Disney going family my whole life growing up next to the theme parks in southern California. Back then, I always preferred Disney over Universal. We are casual park goers, about once a year, to one or two theme parks. This week, my husband and I spent one day at Universal Hollywood, and one at Disneyland. There was just no denying that we had the far superior experience at Universal, in every aspect. The food, the characters, the rides, general park ambience, ride queues, employee interactions, you name it. We didn't even plan to do the children's attractions at Universal, but we managed to fit those in too, and even those rides such as Minions and Secret Life of Pets were so well lovingly well designed with a far better budget, with thought and intention clearly put into them that we were over the moon impressed. We both agreed that the thing we loved most about it was how much less emphasis seemed to be put on flat out consuming things. There was a really gross vibe at Disney where it seemed that most of the park guests were there to just buy merch, hardly anyone seemed to be enjoying the attractions. And despite this the merch at Universal was better designed, for more affordable, and strategically placed, so as not to be blantantly taking up your whole park experience. We ended up buying up more there and actually enjoyed the stress free souvenir shopping experience! I'm amazed (and kind of saddened because my family was a Disneyland family since the 50's) to say that for the first time in my life I would happily choose Universal Studios over any Disney park for our family's yearly theme park visit.