And with the constant improvements such as the heritage restorations, the Alton TLC scheme, as well as the apparent anticipated shift to well themed experience attractions (which in fairness, Alton didn't really have any at all until the early 90s, yet there were still areas of the park, much like today, that were lagging behind in theming etc.) are all great things in today's park, and the park of the future!
The key difference is how money is spent really.
Despite what they make out to be, Merlin are a financial company first and foremost, not an entertainments company. Tussauds started out as a thoroughbread entertainments company, but was slowly remodelled by its parent company Pearson into a financial asset to sell, so saw a lot of amazing investment in the 90s before it dropped off a cliff.
The park today has whole areas closed off, headline rides that feel barely finished (Smiler & Thirteen), a complete lack of big family attractions (like Toyland, Ug Land, Black Hole and Haunted House were), commercial areas like CBeebies land and more investment in hotels than the park – because that's where the easiest money is.
Wicker Man is an amazing new attraction that shows the difference when money is spent and marketing policies are relaxed. It's incredibly fun. The public love it, despite previous wooden coasters being blocked due to the 'statistics' that the public wouldn't like them. Again, you'd only get short-sighted marketing like this with a blindly financial-led company, rather than a business built on entertainment.
John Broome had theme designers and developers creating the park at first (on relatively small budgets). But he tried too hard to copy Disney, and still within a few years he was just renting a load of off-the-shelf coasters and putting them anywhere instead. He became more interested in persuing his Battersea project and looking like a big player in London, than growing Alton Towers.
I hope Wicker Man is a change for the way Merlin treat Alton Towers. It does show that they are willing to treat Towers a little differently to the way they treat everything else in their global empire.