Atelier, usually I like your posts but lately you are sounding so grumpy. :P
Spoiled brats for what? Expecting SE to do better for a service we pay for?
I was hit by the 0 bug, but "seriously" screwed over, the intended winners get their houses, we don't lose anything from it, at most just the time we had to wait to go claim our houses. Housing is supposed to be a gil sink, I think it's ok for being to be mildly upset that the intended winners - who just had to wait longer - don't have to pay anything at all and it's "scout's honors that you'll pay teehee". It just rubs more salt in the wound for people who are already incredibly sore about housing, so idk what you expected coming in here lol.
Didn't read everything but can they not just add a system that verifies in the history of your character you paid for the lot with a loss of gil due to a housing interaction? Like even if the tag for gil loss wasn't directly assiocated to "housing", wouldn't being able to determine it was during X to Y dates, for Y amounts (housing cost ranges), in Z locations (housing districts), to an NPC (removes player to player interactions), be enough to accurately determine who has or has not paid- then give them the option of keeping the house and paying the fee upon entering the house with a dialog box or recinding the opportunity after a grace period of some decent length of time to allow people who spent the funds to get them back.
Heck you could even involve GMs to comb through all of that info or interact with each player, I know it's a lot of houses in a general sense but it is a finite number and given a concerted group effort would be a totally accomplishable task.
I don't really care, just seems like a good way to ensure you've (further) inflated the economy and miffed a few people if you're handing out houses for free.
Alternative suggestion, open up all the past mog tomestone events, poetics, and whatever else (particularly focusing on things that are untrade-able if possible) for a short period of time, to everyone, with a slight one time bonus for those who pay the amount of a house ? (one time doesn't mean you have to buy only once, just paying the funds back to the system gets you a little bit extra once, then you're like everyone else paying the same rate- like store "1 for $5 or 3 for $10").
Even spicier and related to housing- open up mog shop housing items for purchase, for obviously high cost. Those fancy cherry blossom trees, can buy them again (for gil) at a fairly hefty price. I feel that would be a pretty successful gil sink. (Though both of the above are just draining gil, doesn't address free house unlike the first one - though full cost house at an expense of months of 'fun' (/s) also doesn't quite sound like a full price experience lol.. not sure I think free is comparable reward for the stress given in a month, but certainly it's not the full price experience you'd expect haha).
As someone who DID win a house in the lottery, I have absolutely no problem with this. I've had a month to mess about, decorate, hold a birthday party, meet my neighbours and generally have fun. Meanwhile there's a whole bunch of people who have been disappointed, sad, frustrated and annoyed. That's not cool and if some people get a free house from this, I just see it as compensation for being throughly jerked around by SE for a month.
What happens to other people and their house does not in any way affect my own enjoyment of my own house.
You didn't add the benefits of this extra month of having a house, such as gardening and planting thavnarian seeds and then selling the onions for 1/2 a million each. You have an extra month to sell crystals, shards on the MB because of the gardening capacity. You have made millions while we wait and spend said gil on crystals you made gardening. You've had an extra month of growing your subs/airships and selling of the mats from said voyages. You have made exteriors that are going for millions on the MB. I know I purchased one for 3 million. We deserve a free house.
Let's not get too carried away. I've not made millions :P I have my garden but it takes time to cross breed and get Onions, they also don't sell for anywhere near 1/2 million on my server, more usually around the 160-180k mark.
Also, only FC houses get the subs/airships, and there are less of them than individual players.
But yes, there will also have been missed gil making opportunities too.