The game punishes you for it.

All my friends got burnt out on the tome grind and having nothing to do, so they all left to let the story and content build up. I want to do the same because I'm bored on my own.

But if I leave, I lose our FC housing plot and the game will hand FC leadership off to someone else.

I don't even really care about losing the house itself, the thing that bothers me is losing all our workshop progress. Someone I know from another FC demolished their house so they could move and told me that when they did, all their airships, routes and schematics were reset. I don't want to have to go through all that again if I come back.

As for leadership, I don't want it to go to someone who may not come back when I do, if at all.

So my suggestions:
Have an option to "store" houses. All decor, furnishings and workshop progress will be saved and you will be given a ticket that can be redeemed on an equivalent empty plot (e.g. If you stored a large house, when you come back you can only redeem it on an empty large plot). When you redeem the ticket your house will be reloaded as it was when you left.

And for FC leadership, instead of forcing it to pass on, make it an option. When the leader has been gone too long an option will open up to qualified members to adopt leadership. That way if your FC don't want leadership passed around, it won't be.

I just feel like as it is right now, I'm being extorted to keep subbing so I don't lose progress.

And before anyone says it, no, I couldn't have known when I bought a house that this would be the case, because our FC got one back when the director claimed he wouldn't put a timer on housing because he felt like it was a cheap way to make people keep playing.