As someone who has done a relentless amount of research with clients who do either of the dining plans vs. those who do not over the years, i am confident when i say that BOTH of the Disney dining plan options do not save anyone any money. You get more food for more money when you could have been fine spending less and getting less. The ONLY benefit is convenience and i stand by this assessment.
The ONLY people SAVING money from this would be a single parent traveling with 3 or more kids under the age of 10 as the cost of their SINGLE adult dining plan would be outweighed by the "savings" of the THREE children under them. And the idea of a single parent with three children under the age of 10 in Disney is a fresh hell I'd dare not imagine for any sane individual.
The dining plan is optional. All packages are unequivocally MORE expensive when they add it. Disney is still LARGELY unaffordable even WITHOUT the plan. Adding an optional expense to an already ballooned package cost does not save anyone any money. This is nothing but publicity masquerading as a discount(in the face of EPIC's imminent release, no less). If having eyes and doing basic math is pessimistic then you can call me Cormac McCarthy.