I don't know how to make this fun if they can't overcome the tech limitations. Without room for creativity there's almost no point in making island content. So far we have close to zero customisation options, zero reason to visit friends, a rigid currency system that amounts to pointless busy work, just clicking on a few things weekly.

I will bring up the underrated PSO2: NGS. They just revealed their housing system, to release Spring. You can build structures in any shape you want, decide how many floors and rooms there are. Deform the land outside to raise hills or dig holes. Instead of a house you might create a chapel or nightclub or mech factory, whatever you want with your 'creative space'.

The base game PSO2 is 10 years old with limitations, so they essentially just made a new game NGS in a new engine and bolted it onto the old game and let you navigate between both games on the same character. Now it's possible to give a powerful creation tool to players and the game remains free to download and free to play.