The target market for Primeval Whirl is not families, its not thrill seekers, and its really not the guests. The target market is a PowerPoint presentation that said one of the biggest guest complaints about Animal Kingdom is that theres not enough to do. Primeval Whirl is the most cost effective way of checking off that item.
Animal Kingdom has had attendance problems since it opened. It failed to attract new visitors to WDW and its failed to retain the existing guests after their first visit. Florida was given orders to fix the problem and a flood of polltakers laid siege to DAKs gate. Whether or not you think its a half day park or not doesnt matter, the attendance problem exists whatever ones personal opinion about the park.
One of Disneys dirty little secrets is the concept of perceived value. When Disney switched from individual ride tickets to passports they faced a marketing problem: how many rides does a customer have to go on in a single day to get the perception they got their moneys worth? With tickets it was easy: the guests got exactly what they paid for. But with a passport, each guest started a stopwatch the moment they walked under the train station. A visit became a race to get on as many rides as possible. How many is enbugh?
Obviously, you cant determine what that number is for each and every individual guest, so you estimate for the entire customer base. And its a number that doesnt mean how many rides you build, its really used to determine the number of rides you open on any day, the park operating hours and the staffing levels of the attractions themselves (longer lines mean fewer rides in the day).
At the beginning (way back in the early 1980s) both
Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom were pegged at 13 rides. Shows and entertainment werent counted; they were plusses to the guests visit. Naturally, like any numerical target set for customer service, the target gets lowered over time. The cost of opening and running attractions, an over inflated sense of brand value, faulty comparisons of quality or size, and all the usual suspects that any customer-orientated company suffers from over time.
By the time Animal Kingdom and California Adventure opened, the magic number (according to rumors) stood at 6. Yes, you were supposed to get your full $50 or $43 value from seeing six attractions and shows (oh yes, shows are no longer a plus). Even Disney recognized that not every attraction is going to be interesting to every guest, so they built a few more than that just to make sure everyone got in their six. There were legions of MBAs that poured over marketing data, guest surveys, and all kinds of spreadsheets. They were certain of the numbers.
One problem: Disney had lowered its perception of value, but their guests did not.
Take Disneys response to a major problem at California Adventure the place is a wasteland for children. The guests screamed up one side of Guest Relations and down the other side of City Hall. What was Disneys initial response? They produced a handout listing the attractions for kids (including the tortilla making show) and denied flat out denied that there was a problem. They had spreadsheets the spreadsheets cant be wrong! We KNOW youre going to get the value of a childs admission because we can count the number of rides! Disney knew what value was, not their guests!!! Its a merchandisers view: if the numbers are right, then everything is right.
After a while, it became apparent that millions of guests were missing. The parks were in trouble and something had to be done. The solution came once again from the merchandisers maybe the number is really 7! The spreadsheets werent wrong, really, but maybe a little fine tuning was in order because Disneys guests had become ungrateful (think about all the whining The Company is doing about per-guest spending in Tokyo versus here). So the goal became getting to 7 with the least possible cost. Hence, Dino-Rama in Florida, Flicks Fun Fair in California (of the four kiddie rides, its rumored that two will be height restricted by the way).
Primeval Whirl is not the solution of a showman, its the solution of a shopping mall manager. It meets the quantitative requirement of a marketing survey, but it doesnt meet the qualitative requirements that cant be easily measured. All that matters is that the spreadsheet is completed. Whether you like the ride or not isnt the issue. Youll have your chance to catch seven attractions; your child has their seven. There is no problem.
Because the spreadsheet is right.
And BTW, it looks horrible. That looks like somting that they would put up at a local fair. 
