So, a lottery system and a divide between FC and solo wards, eh?

[Almagnus1]

They do this when there's a reason that would make it so players cannot log in to check on their houses. Natural disasters, pandemics, the sort of things that happen in life where SE would rather players worry about real life than a house on a game. I think it's very kind of them to do that. I'm not sure why you think it's ok for demos to continue during such events.

SE has paused the timer in the US for a tsunami in Japan. Events that affect one region should not affect ALL regions, and this uneven pausing of the timer completely halts the release of houses and only further exacerbates the supply problems.

And then something happens like the get COVID and end up in the hospital or a hurricane rips through their state and they don't have internet access for awhile and their house is gone just like that because they cannot pay the weekly rent. And god forbid SE take these events into consideration and halt the demo timer for a little while.

If you are able to bank a couple of months' upkeep (like 2-3 months) you will not be out of commission for long enough that you can't use your phone and reach out to someone on discord, or through some other means. Most people aren't that disconnected from their FCs, and I would imagine that if a disaster like that happened, that the FFXIV and/or TheBalance discord servers would have a section for people to list their properties and be able to help out with the upkeep.

I fail to see how this punishes regular players, except for the imaginary "regular player" that exists only in your head.

No, my dear, I see the current housing situation and I say 'Hmm, how can we make this better for everyone.' While you look at it and say 'How can I punish people for doing things I don't like.'

Did it ever occur to you that the two aren't mutually exclusive? The system will become better for everyone by punishing those exploiting it and stopping futher exploits from occurring. This is a bit like a bot author advocating everyone to bot when the reality is that botting should never be allowed to occur and all instances of players using bots should be permabanned.