The Last Resort for Housing and Hoarders

[Alltair]

though it could be argued that an apartment would suit that purpose just as well

And that is why I said what I said. Getting a house "just" for chocobo stables or gardening or crafting in piece is just outright dumb as there's apartments that grant you stables and function the exact same as a house stable except at a cheaper price. There's inn's you can go to and many other private/solo instances if you desire to craft in peace, no need to shell millions on a house to do that. If all you wanted to do was gardening it'd be insane to spend the millions just for a personal gardening plot when you can just join an FC for free and access gardening that way, boom you just saved millions.

The only reason you'd want to do all these activities on your own private plot - activities which you can already do much cheaper outside of private plots - is the benefit that comes with it being your own private plot: the ability to decorate it to your own liking.
Hence why I said that decoration is pretty much the only purpose of private housing.

[Ghost_of_Ebina]

And that is why I said what I said. Getting a house "just" for chocobo stables or gardening or crafting in piece is just outright dumb as there's apartments that grant you stables and function the exact same as a house stable except at a cheaper price. There's inn's you can go to and many other private/solo instances if you desire to craft in peace, no need to shell millions on a house to do that. If all you wanted to do was gardening it'd be insane to spend the millions just for a personal gardening plot when you can just join an FC for free and access gardening that way, boom you just saved millions.

The only reason you'd want to do all these activities on your own private plot - activities which you can already do much cheaper outside of private plots - is the benefit that comes with it being your own private plot: the ability to decorate it to your own liking.
Hence why I said that decoration is pretty much the only purpose of private housing.

I own an M-size house with the main reason I can have 19 gardening plots I can use for my own pleasure, so you can call me "dumb." There are such dumb people existing, but the fact remains that there are people who own houses with gardening being the primary reason.

Apartments only allow a measly 2 plots, and what you can grow is limited.
FC-owned plots are not always available for your personal use whenever the heck you want, which is a bother.
Some FCs have the FC owner pretty much using their garden plots on their own, and some FC houses don't have gardening plots so the problem remains.

[Jojoya]

If all you wanted to do was gardening it'd be insane to spend the millions just for a personal gardening plot when you can just join an FC for free and access gardening that way, boom you just saved millions.

You're assuming the FC isn't using their garden patches to grow things like Thavnairian Onions for their members and no one else in the FC would likewise want to use them.

That's not going to work out too well.

If you own a personal house, you don't have to worry about others wanting to use the garden patches. One garden patch can pay for the price of a small plot in less than 2 months depending on what you're growing.

You can make all the assumptions you want about the purpose of a personal house but they're still just your assumptions and others have their own ideas.