Hoarding Houses - Sometimes a Depressing Sight (a rant)

[Harmonea]

Certainly I expect that pair on Mateus, who own an entire ward, intend to keep it right up until FFXIV shuts down forever. They put in far too much time and effort to let easily remedied carelessness take away any of their houses. If they remain diligent with resetting timers then only bugs, very unfortunate life circumstances or direct intervention by SE can remove their houses.

I must confess I find your fixation on this one case strange considering the context of your OP, which is about depressing, pointless hoarding of barren plots of land with little to no interior or exterior decoration. That's not what was done there.

Regardless, as has been mentioned in many other replies... When a thousand people want a house, removing 14 (in that case, at least) isn't going to solve any problems. SE knows this, and that's why they've left things as they are.

What we should be doing, if the goal is truly to ensure everyone has enough rather than to take from those who got too much under different rules, is to focus on pushing for a system that will provide for everyone. If I may quote myself:

The solution truly is to provide instanced housing for those who want them. If we can have 200 pieces of data for a glamour chest, we should be able to have 200 pieces of data *tied to the character* for furnishings in a personal home.