The placard clicking sucked and it encouraged botting.
The lottery sucks for different reasons, but it still sucks.

Neither the lottery or the timer did anything to solve the underlying issue. While demand for houses outstrips supply to the extent it does, people will do everything they can to improve their odds, legal or otherwise.
Right now I'm seeing people levelling alts who never ever would have touched an alt before (and it doesn't even cost you extra on your sub now). I'm also noticing a lot of low level FCs with closed recruitment and four or less players who have managed to snag a 'FC' house.

These band-aids the devs have been sticking onto the ward system have done nothing to actually address the problem. They have been tinkering around trying to find ways to make the present system bearable, and I have to say that I am getting increasingly frustrated by this approach. It's a waste of resources that could have been put towards either providing instanced houses or making apartments much more attractive.