I remember being in high school reading Thrillrides.com (dating myself) and thing that stood out to me back then (and now) was that IOA was dubbed as "the worlds most technologically advance park" with the rave being about spiderman and those S.C.O.O.P. ride vehicles. we cant look at IOA by todays standards because that isn't fair. I see you guys saying they had no IP's people wanted but 30 years ago the IP's they picked were relevant. Marvel was in productions with their Xmen movies and spiderman movies, the second Jurassic park movie had came out, Dr Seuss was arguably timeless and classic even more back then and loved by all so they did have relatable content compared to what was out. But, back to the attractions lol. This was an Era where S&S space shots and turbo drops were extremely popular and sought after. A lot of people had never seen freefall towers and honestly, tower of terror still felt more like an elevator than thrill ride and no one wants to spend 140mil on that concept alone.
The way toon lagoon was described made it seemed like nothing ever experienced with it's large water attractions. looking at the rendering of that huge drop going what seemed to be underwater then popping out in a roller coaster hill was never seen by the average guest and never on that scale. The same could be say about popeyes as well.Then you had dueling dragons. The description of this ride pretty much sealed the deal for me! I think, back then they were highlighting a 12 inch threshold for the near misses and it was phenomenal seeing such a coaster outside of a traditional amusement park. THEN the preview video came out, I was floored and I said I had to get to this park lol.
Anyway, I feel that IOA was perfection in theory but with the lack of family friendly attractions (in a park with family friendly themes) hurt the park and it felt as of universal left the park to rot after 5 years or so operating. I feel the same level of conceptual design and development happening at EU. They are going for tech advance rides, classic and timeless IP's, however they are incorporating more family style attractions and the imersions they learned a result of potter. I now wonder how people will feel about EU in 30 years. . .