Now that I've got more time and you're oriented to the thought process, I'll explore this further. People tend to be either more oriented to the quality/experience of a resort OR a destination person meaning they want to go to an area and as long as something's clean, safe & functional, they're fine. Obviously most are somewhere in between but people really to tend to truly be more one type or the other. It's difficult to throw out a list of specific resorts because it's so limited but to name a few:
- Hilton's in HI
- A few other resorts in HI (KBC, SOK for example)
- NYC resorts
- A few ski resorts during top ski weeks
- A couple of Aruba resorts (Playa Linda, Costa Linda, La Cabana) come to mind.
- Some of the Panhandle Wyndham's plus one or 2 others in that area
- Bluegreen's in Savannah, Charleston come to mind
Realize that even the resorts that are a reasonable value are mostly going to be a downtrade. There aren't a lot of resorts that are on the same level as DVC, Marriott, Hyatt, Westin and Hilton. Also realize when you exchange you lose control and flexibility so you take risk if you have to change or cancel and you lose control of villa assignments. You're at the mercy of the resort. 1 BR do tend to be a better trade value than 2 BR and far better than studios with DVC but many resorts have mostly or only 2 BR. Remember if you're giving up 250 DVC points, that's a market value of around $3500 so it's not a great choice to trade for something you could get for $1000 or even $500. I know some don't want to fool with rentals but the lost value is still reality you just have to decide. IMO there is often more risk with an exchange than a rental done appropriately.
I singled out MX for a reason. There are a ton of great resort but they are cheap to exchange to. Here's an extreme but real personal example. A number of years ago I stayed at a Cabo resort that's in the RCI Registry. The trade costs were slightly different at the time than now but for 2 weeks (1 BR then 2 BR) it would literally have been 1500 DVC points and my real costs were around $650 total for the 2 weeks all inclusive of ALL costs for the accommodations. All inclusive tend to be the worst value and by the time you pay the AI fee are often more than if you'd just went cash. I've seen it where you could get the same resort exactly on cash including air inclusive for less than just the AI fee itself. I've seen the AI fees over $4K for 2 people and some charge for the private occupancy of the unit even if you don't have that many staying.
For investigating timeshares I find TA poor at best but there is volume there so it can be helpful if you just understand the limitations. Also relying on RCI's ratings or posts there will set you up for a poor experience. Use those as a small part of your investigation only. I prefer TUG (Timeshare Users Group) as my main source then when it comes down to specifics, I often try to find people who have true knowledge and experience with a given set of resorts and area, TUG's BBS is good for that like DIS is for DVC. Ultimately I look at a number of options including the resort's web pages and often get good info from rental sites that list a given resort.