Poly CL fan here. Whether CL is a better "deal" than the DP is pretty subjective and depends a lot on how you tour. For us, I would do CL all day long before ever doing a DP of any kind or cost, but that's just me. It can be difficult to make the "math work" with CL when purely comparing dining costs as it's not just about the food.
FWIW, I just got back from Poly CL two weeks ago and posted extensively with photos over on the CL thread. My first post is here but continues over several pages so make sure to click forward. Here's a link to the first post:
Disney's Club Level (CL) Information and Questions
Poly CL has recently undergone some pretty significant changes to their snacks and evening apps, they were much better than prior trips. Fresher ingredients, good flavors, more variety than before.
Our typical CL day is breakfast in the lounge, a more substantial lunch out wherever we are, and then often we are content with evening apps for dinner. I agree it's not meant to be a meal replacement, but it often is for us because we're just not that hungry come end of the day. This applies to both the adults and kids. Granted this works for us because we do tend to be 'around' the resort more often than not as we're not commandos. I don't always follow this pattern - we'll still plan a few important ADRs here and there - but it's more or less a typical day.
For me, yes, part of CL is the food, but there are also other small benefits as well. You're guaranteed to be in the Hawaii longhouse in whatever view category you booked - I like knowing where I'll be in advance, that's worth something for me. You have access to Disney Signature Services pre-arrival who can help with any itinerary planning, adding requests to your reservation, etc. You have dedicated CM's onsite that can help with any planning while there, problems, etc. I don't really use DSS or the CL CMs while there, but it's nice to have in case.
Oh, and there's this. My favorite view in WDW.