Realistically, what are the odds we'll see an item number increase?

[Jojoya]

At least we have the official announcement about the increase coming next expansion.

I do agree with wanting an increase but trying to work around the limit is certainly a boon to creativity

I agree with this but I also understand why some would prefer the higher limits. Sometimes I come up just short of what I hoped to achieve. Others I don't even attempt because existing items can't make it possible (though sometimes later furnishing additions can).

that's a bull reasoning. See what people create without limits in other games. The limit in FF14 results in people just creating more often than not bland "modern" designs with no inspiration with the exact same layouts because that's the most effective thing people are able to do with the item limit.

The only game I can remember that didn't have limits in housing in The Sims, and housing in that game can't be compared to the rest because it works differently.

Other MMORPGS also have limits and the limits are lower in many cases. RIFT and ESO have higher limits but their housing is fully instanced with huge spaces compared to the relatively small area we have to work with in this game (even those with mansions).

have you played the sims? v-rising, ark survival evolved, rust, satisfactory, factorio, subnautica, valheim, minecraft, cities skylines and lots more, these are just the ones off the top of my head where i have seen some amazing builds as well as very easy to build in.

In both factorio and minecraft, people have created computers within the games. Someone even made pacman in factorio.

FF14 is the only game that has pretty severe restrictions on what you can and can't do and the only way to bypass some of those restrictions is to abuse bugs or use a 3rd party tool that goes against the terms of service which can result in your account being banned.

I'm sorry you seem to have not played any other games in the last 20 years, but fyi, there's A LOT out there, so you should try expanding your horizons.

The Sims I mention above.

Cities: Skylines is a solo player city builder. not a game with player housing (it's my go to game when I want a break from this one). You have never seen "an amazing build" of player housing coming out of that game.

Minecraft is a pixel sandbox. It is again a completely different style of housing more akin to the Sims than housing in MMORPGs.

The other games I don't play so I don't know if they have player housing or if you're once again confusing what is meant by player housing.

FFXIV doesn't have even close to the restrictions on player housing decoration that you'll have in LotRO or SWTOR, where items can only be placed on designated hooks and only on hooks for the item type.

Try playing some other MMORPGs before commenting on how good or bad the housing is in this game. It's not the best, but it's also not even close to the worst.