Will there ever be a way to access housing features....

[Mirarara]

Yes, this would be why, combined with the reluctance to explain what exactly she meant.

They don't do anything about botters on NA servers. There are people botting on my server that have been since I started playing, and they've been reported numerous times.

They do things about it. I have seen several people try to sell off the demolish timing of the estate of their banned account in NA.

My stand is still the same. It's not hard to get an estate if you are willing to give effort. But most refuse to put in extra effort even though housing is competitive. In a competitive market, only those who placed in the most effort/thought win.

There's actually at least another 2 method to get an estate without violating ToS/law that I know of. Pretty sure there are more but those are suffice to me.