Regarding that Finaland Interview...

[Paladinleeds]

This isn't Aion, BDO, nor Archeage where housing is actually needed or provides something useful, it's just all glamour.

Submersibles and airships are FC housing only, and do provide crafting materials etc (some of which are unique to it). Grade 3 FC buffs are only available via free company houses too, and these can give some pretty useful buffs, from reduced teleport costs, increased food buff times, reduced durability loss. Especially for raiders, the latter 2 are extremely useful. Gardening provides unique mats as well, some only obtainable via crossbreeding, and this crossbreeding is only available in housing (personal or FC, doesn't matter, non-crossbreeding gardening abilities are available in apartments). They do provide useful things. Now, I suggest expanding apartments to allow for crossbreeding gardening, via a patio as people have suggested.

So yeah, it's more than just an actual glamour house.

Petty buffs and cosmetics for your mount =/= needing a house to actually craft gear that matters and items period.

Glamour is also an attraction, and a very big one in this game. Buffs that give you an edge in raiding by not needing as much food as it lasts longer. Less repair costs due to gear lasting longer before needing repairs. These items matter for people. Crafting items is the lifeblood of a crafter (including these vanity items), or are you going to try and downplay that too? If you do, then it's pointless debating with you as we absolutely will not ever be able to reach an agreement.

My whole point is, I don't think he came off as out of touch. There's not much he can say or do about a system that's apparently limited other than use an apartment.

Ok, now this I can somewhat agree with. I wouldn't say out-of-touch, but there is an underlying issue that does need to be resolved here. I do feel they need to rip out the housing system and fix it. One thing I suggested in another thread was make each plot instanced, within a singular ward for each area (no subdivision). Expand the apartments to allow for much the same functionality as the houses, make the houses themselves FC only (full reimbursement for all player houses destroyed, or move their entire house to an equivalently sized apartment in the same housing area, perhaps allowing for 2 apartments per character if needed to avoid "grandfathering issues" meaning some players have more apartments than others). I do think there's more that can be done. But naturally, he can't really speak about the upgrades he's doing for the housing areas (if any), so I would say he isn't out of touch based on that alone.

[Vahlnir]

So yeah, it's more than just an actual glamour house.

Housing is also a gil sink, and having those is actually pretty important too.