It's meant to reward older players over new players I believe. If you've been playing a long time and actively trying to get a house, you could get one. I saw 2-3 plots open every week on my server (and that's just what I casually spotted from checking the aetheryte once in a while). Shirogane 1.0 EX was such a shitshow because of house flippers, and because we have all these people who've only been playing a couple months suddenly had the burning need to get in on the market (note: I knew many personally, and they would turn their nose up whenever I announced an empty plot because how dare you expect me to settle for this perfectly serviceable small). Why shouldn't the older (or less picky) house owners get better picks over someone that's only been around for a couple weeks? Yes in an ideal world everyone gets what they want (although I'm sure they'd still find something else the whine about - that it's not worth anything now that everyone can have it, probably), but idk. I find the biggest complaints about the wards/housing implementation itself come from younger peeps that've been playing less than a year.