[cornishfrogboy]

I guess it’s a question of whether you are seeking an LA holiday or a California Holiday, just like people decide between an Orlando Holiday or a Florida holiday. In both cases, the two are totally different. In both cases, I would always opt for State, rather than City.

Whilst we are all totally different in what we may seek, I would struggle with just LA. On our 2018 vacation, we covered SFO, Monterey, Valencia, Anaheim, San Diego, Long beach, Santa Monica and Hollywood tour (see trippie in my signature). One thing that we all agreed on was that we did not like the LA parts at all, much preferring the rest.
Disney? A day in each park was more than enough for us.

As in your question, SFO is 400 miles beautiful drive from Anaheim. If I was following your initial plan, then I would sooner take a regional flight from LAX to SFO, then leave from SFO. You really do not need a car in San Francisco, they are expensive to park and the 4 days or so of car hire will pay for your internal flights in any case.

If looking for a further city after LA and not wishing a further flight, then I would do the 100 miles to San Diego. For us, it was the pick of the places we visited.

Next August we return to California (and Arizona and Nevada) we start at San Francisco and whilst we are visiting LA, it is only for Universal and Warner bros before flying out of Burbank to Tucson. 2 days LA is more than enough for us! You can pick up more info in the Pre trip report in my signature, covering research, hotels etc etc.

Hope it helps.