DRI is making a lot of changes fast and fee's are increasing just as rapidly. If it were me, I would not be buying into DRI until the dust settle's and owners really know where they stand (quality vs cost of owning).
In the past you have NOT had to pay full freight to get into THE Club but, as mentioned, DRI has continued to change the rules of the game until it's come to a point where no one is really certain about resale units. If you purchase Trust points, you'll always be able to exchange between the resorts in the DRI trust (19 different resorts). THE Club has over 100 resorts (with varying inventory for exchange purposes) and is a different animal.
DRI originally was allowing resale buyers to pay a joiner fee of $2,995 to bring resale units into THE Club. Lately it seems the slammed the door on this offer and they are now wanting you to buy at full freight from them. At one point if you purchased any unit with them they'd allow you to bring in resale units. They use to allow it to be written into their contracts that you would have so many months after making a developer purchase that you could buy resale units and bring them into THE Club as well.
I believe those days may be gone. Lately it's been sounding more and more as if you must buy directly from DRI in order to be a member of THE Club. For sales this is great. For members this is bad. As old owners sell off their weeks, those weeks will be lost to THE Club for exchange. This will eventually lead to decreased inventory for THE Club members for internal changes. So, it's good for sales staff but bad for owners. Eventually, it may be bad for sales staff as well since you'll see fewer repeat buyers. Who would buy additional points when there isn't adaquate inventory to exchange into if that owners was sold on the idea of exchange? IMO, not allowing an affordable mechanism to bring resale units back into THE Club is short sighted and will not only hurt owners, it will eventually hurt the developer and his sales staff.