I've done Palau twice (Yap on the way one time) and one time spent a couple of days on Peleliu island one time and a couple of days way up at the northern end of Babeldaob the other (we did the monoliths as well). It's totally different being at a resort with no air conditioning when trying to get to sleep.
I haven't done the bargain rate route for lodging because it's almost impossible to find any information on the cheap hotels like the DW on the web. They tend not to have full websites but stub sites with one page that has a phone number and an email address. So I read with great interest your review of the DW. Do they have any queen sized beds?
On the first trip, I stayed part of the time at the Rose Garden Inn which was okay though they need some de-aglae-fication on the concrete steps because when it drizzles, which is just about every day practically, the incline makes it slip and fall prone very easily. The rest of the time I was at Caroline's resort up in the hills. My second time out I stayed at the Sea Passion Resort, which is a pretty good bang for the cost and is located walking distance form Sam's, and Caroline's resort.
I read on another thread someone complaining about doing an internet search finding so few hotels on the beach. Well...yeah...Palau is mostly rocks and little beach, especially on Koror, so you're not going to get many hotels on the beach because there isn't much beach to put hotels on. Even the "beach" at the Sea Passion is man made...and quite a bit shorter now than the website pictures showed last I looked. The one resort with a beach is the Palau Pacific Resort and it's probably the most expensive resort in the country. But for non-guests there's a "backdoor" to the use of the private beach and the facilities of the Palau Pacific Resort if you know where to go.
I'm just stunned to hear you say you only dived Palau one day. I know you were island hopping and all but diving 1 day in Palau is like going to the Indy 500, showing up in the middle of the race, and leaving after a couple of laps have elapsed. You missed SO much...