I actually thought Eisner came across pretty good. While the Imagineers may have considered EPCOT a triumph, there is a reason EPCOT's opening also marked the most financially dangerous period of time for Disney as a company since Walt just about mortgaged everything he had to finish Disneyland. Yes they talked about Disney forcing a buyout of the corporate raiders, and that it was a dangerous time, but you have to look to realize how close Disney came to being completely split apart at that moment. Miller just about lost the company as we know it. The massive investment in EPCOT, as well as a lull in movie magic in the late 70s and into the 80s, just about ended Disney.
So it made sense to change how things were being done. And Eisner and Wells did that. Mistakes were made. The financing and placement of Euro Disney was a huge one. But overall, the company entered the Eisner era with an Imagineering triumph and a whisker from being destroyed with 3 theme parks, it exited the Eisner era with 10 or so theme parks, a much larger global presence, and on ridiculously strong financial footing. A true entertainment giant and well positioned to get even stronger.
Give the man his due. His job wasn't just the parks. But he did a lot for the parks with Wells and after Wells. I doubt we'd have had the decade long drought of park improvement under him. But we also never got the ground shaking Imagineering astonishment of EPCOT. In other words, he did something all the previous CEOs, including Walt, struggled to do. He built parks without pushing the company to the edge of a cliff. Maybe he could have pushed a little more and gotten a better end product. Maybe he shouldn't have built as many and made the ones he did better. But regardless, pre and post Wells, Eisner did more for the Parks than anyone but Walt. And that still holds true today.
I liked his quotes that other people didn't. They ring very true.