The relocation mechanism as a whole is a QoL improvement, according to what I’d read regarding what it was like before relocation mechanism is added. (Apparently FC’s had to clear out all FC rooms in addition to furnitures inside and out, relinquish the plot(!), and then they could attempt to buy a new plot)

The ability to bypass the timer is probably what most house-hunters have issue with; not the relocation mechanism itself. And I don’t think there’s too much harm in relocators bypassing timers if there’s no one waiting at the plot, since the relocator’s old plot opened up the total available plots count is the same)

The “harm” comes in when there are already people waiting at the plot, because it meant those people have to start over waiting on a new timer at a different plot. (Been there, done that. Lost at the end on the relocator’s old plot too.)

What SE probably could do, if they want to keep allowing relocation to bypass timer, is to transfer the timer on the now-purchased plot to the relocator’s old plot. (Maybe +5 min in case if the old timer was about to end too to give people time to move over). That way at least it would not feel like all that time was wasted.

Also they probably should make the timer on relocation itself to be a couple of days or whole week, so you don’t have people grabbing up plots in newly opened wards/area then immediately relocate out.

But none of these suggestions are new. They’ve all been brought up over and over. Either FFXIV does not have the resources to make changes, or maybe they have other concerns. There’s probably not going to be much change prior to 6.0/6.1 so it’s all kind of all moot.