Let's look at these two options, since as we pull back more layers and deeply examine the situation, this seems to be the core of what SE was most likely facing. Delay housing for the umpteenth time because the server infrastructure just isn't there yet, or allow housing to pass through in this update, but set at exorbitant costs to purposely dissuade players from actually participating in it.
Both cases allow SE another 3 months or so to improve and fix whatever bits and bobs that are gunking up the server backbone, preventing them from allowing free building of houses to all FCs and stable instance additions that don't require manual approval.
In favor of letting housing pass through despite its current limitations is that it could possibly siphon off some gil from the economy while also providing small stress tests with live players against their coding, hopefully without crashing things, which tends to get folks understandably miffed. Also with this released, they can claim their game has housing features, a feature considered a major MMO draw-in and staple these days, even if it isn't actually accessible by the large majority.
In favor of delaying housing, it gives them time to properly finish the backbones of this feature and one would hope, introduce it as a real option that is practical for most all FCs from the start. Groups being able to actually afford houses that properly represent their size.
However, both options also leave a heavy weight for Yoshi, the FFXIV team, and Square Enix to shoulder in terms of frustration from their customers. Inaccessibility to the players vs delaying again a feature that had been hyped as many times as it had been delayed.
So what are your thoughts? Would you have preferred that Yoshi and the team honestly say that housing still wasn't ready yet due to server issues and that it may be delayed for another 3 months, or would you rather have things like they are now with the features being added, but inaccessible to most players until 3 months out through the use of financial gates?