Agreed and frankly some of this was why my FC decided to just get the small house now and then upgrade later on down the line. Too many new features and systems are being locked behind the wall of FC membership.

As for how you've written up the implementation of something like this, I don't know if a mechanic to lock out the rich is really needed. They'd still be required to spend the time and spend their gil on seeds and soil. Those should be enough of a sink on their own coupled with the time they'll need to maintain all of their plots.