Riv per point pricing during the initial offer with incentives really wasn't that bad. I think some folks around here picked up points at 168 a point after incentives, which isn't far off some of the more expensive resale resorts.
I can see an argument to be made to buy direct at Riv over resale BCV or even BLT.
Not every resort is for everyone. Many folks hate BLT, while I love it. Others love OKW while it does nothing for me. Same for AKV, too far away from things. If you don't like Riv that's ok, the wonderful thing about DVC is all the options.
Riv dues are artificially high, similar to CCV who really hasn't seen dues increase since it opened, I think they over estimated the dues at first, and in 2 more years the other resorts will have closed the gap dues wise.
I put quite a bit of thought into buying in at Riv, it just wasn't for me for 2 reasons
1: The way we tour usually ends up with us at MK every night. We do 1 park in the AM, siesta for the afternoon, and hit MK at night. The walk back to BLT is priceless
2: The point chart would have required me to buy 20 to 90 more points than I would need at BLT for the room I want. The extra dues over the years add up.
The direct benefit discount can add up a bit as well. I've probably "saved" (aka spent a ton more money) over 2K so far using DVC discounts. Most of it was on our last 2 trips when we got discounted tickets to
MNSSHP (9 tickets) and a couple DAH events (6 tickets x2). We also bought a couple of AP's back in Feb, plus random dining and merch discounts.