Sorry for the confusion but from what I can tell then, the only reason to do the request first without depositing would be to be able to keep the week you've booked and use it yourself or try to rent out (if your request doesn't come through)?
This is a BIG yes. There are a lot of negatives to request first and deposit later but the request first does give you options with your week up until a match is found including usage and rental. Since you're new to this, let me make sure about one variation on MVC with II. All II members can do request first but the normal request first for II in general requires the week requested to start no later than the start date of your week. With MVC you can do so for up to 2 years from the date you're putting in the request (and later amend the request) even if it's after the start of your week. You must call, it'd can't be done online. And you should specify that you don't want it deposited at 75 days out (else why do request first). If your situations changes and you later want to deposit you can always deposit later or change it to deposit automatically at 75 days out. If you don't specify, they normally set it up as deposit at 75 days but sometimes they'll ask you which you want.
The one question which I am confident the answer once was, if you deposit later, you had to restart the search and lose your place in line. The wording currently with II suggests it's now otherwise but one would want to know that for certain if calling back to deposit on a pending request first and I am not certain what that current answer is.
The one other imponderable, which many have different views on but noone knows for certain is which if either of Request First and Deposit First has higher priority in securing an exchange.
Our very first MVC salesman advised always doing Request First, as this gives added incentive for Interval to fulfil your exchange request otherwise they don’t get your week.
This may be true, it may not.
All I can say is that we have always used Request First for nearly 20 years now and always been successful getting our requests fulfilled.
All indications I've ever had, both direct and indirect, are that there is no priority either way. IIRC Craig Urbine (then II VP) stated such when the II board was active. But we also know that II has an incentive structure that encourages the employees to work individual accounts so I could see them looking at that request and trying to find something to match on the other side on a case by case basis. They'd potentially get a 2 for 1 if they were successful doing so.
More importantly though is your experience is a testimonial to having realistic requests, reserving a good trading week and planning early. I can't say I've always gotten what I requested but I have always been successful when I expected to be. I was never successful on a regular search trading Harbour Pointe week 35 for a Grande Ocean week 25-27 on a regular search which relates to why I sold it. I was successful once online within 60 days and once on a priority search when II messed things up canceling an exchange request by mistake and it wasn't found for a month or 2.
To be clear, I sold HP week 35 not because I couldn't get into GO but because it taught me the importance of resort quality and trade power (esp the former) in the trading formula. I did like the ability to deposit and request an extra 6 months earlier (18 months out) though.