I don't know about "quitting and not coming back", but the current housing is definitely predatory with how it's handled and is also pretty fucking terrible system wise.

Maybe I am remembering wrong, and if anyone was around way back then you can correct me, but if I recall correctly originally Yoshi-P said they weren't going to ever implement the auto-demolition of housing...until they did anyway. So now you HAVE to keep paying your sub along with visiting your house once every 45 days to keep it. Add on the fact there are several houses to almost entire wards owned by just one or two people on pretty much every server. The whole "neighborhood" aesthetic is just...not there, and they should stop trying to force that mindset because it's just not going to happen with how the system is currently being handled. Housing is ultimately just a mess that they don't really want to fix because it would either take too much time and development to do so, or they don't want to step on the toes of the players who own multiple houses by forcing them to give up all but 1.

Island Sanctuary could've been seen as a "beta test" of sorts to instanced housing with how it was implemented. Given how shit I.S turned out at the end with how they treated the entire thing though, they probably don't have too much desire to focus on instanced housing in the future and this was just a one and done deal, especially because they know if players want a house, they'll do the lottery, and then if they win the house they'll HAVE to keep subbing to keep it, even if it's during a content drought or they are just burned out and not having fun playing, lest they lose it.

Hell if they do actually implement instance personal housing one day, you know there is no way they are going to pull an Oprah with houses and go "AND YOU GET A HOUSE! AND YOU GET A HOUSE! EVERYONE GETS A HOUSE!" They absolutely WILL make it so instanced housing requires a separate monthly fee of like 5-15+ bucks a month depending on what and how they choose to implement it because they KNOW people will do it and it'll make them a ton of money.