I am also not an expert but have been a Wyndham owner for awhile and will explain it the best I can.
My parents had an old Fairfield timeshare where we had a floating week that could only be used at certain times of the year (I believe their week could be used in "high" demand periods). We had to reserve the entire week, although we could stay the entire time, or not. Once the week was used, it was used and that was it.
We own 384,000 Wyndham points across three resorts - Pagosa Springs (we just got back from there), Sedona and the Grand Desert in Vegas. The points we have can be used to reserve any available unit at any Wyndham resort in the system, at any time of the year where there is availability. I can reserve a unit for less than a week - 3, 4 or 5 nights (as well as 7 nights). So, here's an example: last year, a friend of mine was getting married in Vegas in September, and I wanted to rent a 3-bedroom unit at Grand Desert so I and some other friends could stay together during the wedding. When I went in to reserve, I had multiple options for check-in days, multiple options for unit sizes (1-bedroom to 4-bedroom), and multiple options for the number of nights I wanted to stay. Each option "costs" a different number of points - larger units cost more points; longer stays cost more points. If you're trying to go to Vegas during big events - the Consumer Electronics Show, or Electric Daisy Carnival - those are "high demand" times and if reservations are available, they cost more points. But you basically can get anything you want, if it's available and you're willing to spend the points it will cost.
I chose what I needed (3-bedroom unit for three nights, checking in on 9/19) and the cost was, let's say, 96,000 points, plus a "reservation credit" and "housekeeping credits" (I can explain more about those if you want me to). Once I hit "confirm this reservation" in the reservation system, the 96,000 points was deducted from my points balance. I never have a fixed number of nights I can stay somewhere in a given year - we have had years where we've blown almost our entire points allotment on two units in Vegas for a four-night multi-family vacation, and years when we've been able to stay more than 15 nights across four different resorts because we took advantage of "point sales" (where units at a given resort are available for fewer points than usual). There's a lot of flexibility; a lot more than I think we would have if we owned fixed or floating weeks.
I really, really like the points system because of the flexibility. When my parents had their floating week, we could trade/exchange but the options were limited. Back then, with Fairfield, some resorts were "worth" more and some were "worth" less, in the system, and as some resorts went downhill (like the home resort my parents bought into), there were fewer and fewer places we could trade to. While I don't love everything about Wyndham, I do have to say that as long as I am on the ball and make reservations early, we can pretty much get into anywhere we want to go, any time we want to be there, in a unit that makes us happy (we don't stay in units smaller than 2 bedrooms; we like our space). I don't regret becoming a Wyndham owner even though some of their recent management moves are concerning to me.
Hope this answers your question; if you have any more questions I can try to help.
