player housing should be available to everyone.

[Jojoya]

On top of that, housing is STILL instanced - it's just that we have thirty houses in each instance. So, fundamentally, it's already failed to achieve the dream, even if there were enough wards for everyone to have a house.

They aren't fully instanced. Only house interiors are instanced. The wards themselves are always "on" even if there are no players in them, unlike instances that are only generated when a player is present.

I still think about the Q&A from the EU FanFest where they talked about new technology they were working on that would allow players to see what's happening in non-instanced areas from an instanced area. If they're successful in creating that, it could really change housing for the better and allow instanced houses while retaining the neighborhood feeling.