Your question is presented as though we all did something we should not have done.
I find your premise to be quite faulty.
In my case, for my family, it is the exact opposite. We purchased several weeks with Marriott in 1998, then more weeks later,
and since then several MORE after that.
We currently own 10 Marriott weeks and 6 non-Marriott weeks (about half of our weeks are resales), and we enjoy every single one, and because of our ownership,
we have traveled all over the world and assuredly all over this country, both inside & outside the continental US.
Our children have seen it all, since beginning about ages 8 & 11, and have enjoyed many, many family trips together their whole lives.
I think our beach count for Grande Ocean alone is up to about 78 occupied weeks now....that's a heck of a lot of fun for kids to enjoy the beach, not to mention for us parents!
WHY did I continue to buy them, as you ask? Simply, to OWN MORE WEEKS, to travel MORE and to travel MORE OFTEN,
and to own a forever-positive cash flow if I ever stop traveling and decide to RENT THEM.
There has been nothing but positive that has come from our ownership weeks. We enrolled most of the Marriott weeks
in the DC program early on when we could, so we were at the right place at the right time to benefit from being
in the DC Points program. Our annual cumulative points add up to 17,800 should we decide to avail ourselves of that.
Our options are now virtually endless, and we are very thankful for it.
Without Marriott, we would not have done any of it.....and if we tried, we'd have spent far, far more, with no prospects of EVER lowering the cost going forward!
Our kids continue to thank us all the time, and we continue to use our weeks the best we can despite the different directions
we have taken because the kids have grown up. But now, we have the ultimate flexibility to let everyone still participate by also taking individual vacations when we cannot all get together. And we're still happy. For instance, we've enjoyed the last two weeks at Grande Ocean in Hilton Head----our attorney son flew into Savannah to stay 4 nights with us. Our dentist daughter could not
make the trip because she was going to Maine on a girls' high school anniversary trip, partly arranged through connections from our timeshare ownership, so there are benefits everywhere we turn, and we make it work.
But their jobs do indeed make it more challenging, but the flexibility is still there.
I get excited every single year in booking everything, because each year is totally different, and we continue to
try new things and new places. My wife and I are going to Italy this Fall for 2 weeks for the first time,
and next year we'll go to Ireland for the first time, both trips with other couples, which is a first.
As a family we've all been to Europe several times---England, Scotland, and France--- but only our kids have already been to Italy
(connections via Marriott affiliation etc).
So, "with all we know about timeshares", as you say, we have an off-the-charts ADVANTAGE to be able to
CONTINUE traveling at a far, far, far cheaper rate exactly BECAUSE we have been highly trained, and because of "what we know".
And frankly, the more one buys, if he/she "indeed knows more", the more he/she can enjoy MORE, for LESS.
Isn't that the ultimate and original intent of timeshare ownership anyway?
On the other hand, which maybe speaks more to your assumed sentiment or perspective, if someone bought foolishly,
either the brand or the location, or whatever, and it turned out to be bad,
I'm so sorry for that.
But it surely didn't happen that way for us, and I suspect it's the same for most Marriott owners here.
If there are disillusioned Marriott owners out there, knowing myself everything that Marriott offers,
I truly wonder how they could have screwed up such a good thing.
