I see you have reading difficulties. Let's start from the beginning again.
You say "Shell FCs are a bigger problem than we think...".
First off, who's "we"?
You?
The players who post on this forum?
If so, why do you include Japanese players who don't even write in this section? I can't help but notice you made no effort in asking them why they favor smaller FCs. Or better yet, find me extensive posts from Japanese players who show as much disdain for small FCs as you do. The very reason why you can filter servers by Data Center or Region is to provide fair comparisons. You chose to bundle everything together to make it seem like this is a bigger problem than it actually is, when it's hardly a problem in the first place.
I know you like to cry about people who criticize you and how they "put words in your mouth", but you chose the word "we" while also including players that quite simply do not belong or even wish to post here.
Anyhow, let's go back to this "problem"... have some proper stats as of March:
Characters with access to FC housing: 1,848,832
Characters with access to personal housing (with all 3 tenants): 271,885 (1,087,540)
Average characters per FC with a house:
NA: 23.4
EU: 17.01
JP: 10.4
FCs with a house and less than 4 members:
NA: 6,053
EU: 3,519
JP: 14,154
FCs with a house and less than 4 members created since the temporary restrictions have been added:
NA: 3,217
EU: 2,257
JP: 6,522
If you still want to run with a global stat that suits your pseudo agenda, despite the clear differences between the 3 regions, then go ahead, embarrass yourself even more!
Are you still reading or are you gonna flee as you did in your thread about apartments?
Back on topic, you voluntarily decided to include FCs that have been purchased before the "temporary restrictions" were added. Why? Actually, you don't need to answer, the readers know why you would.
Let's compare the amount of FC houses with less than 4 members that have been purchased after those restrictions against all the FC houses:
NA: 3,217 out of 38,772 or 8.3%
EU: 2,257 out of 18,342 or 12.3%
JP: 6,522 out of 62,681 or 10.4%
Now let's compare your so-called "shell FCs" against all the available plots:
NA: 3,528 out of 138,240 or 2.5%
EU: 2,378 out of 69,120 or 3.4%
JP: 7,185 out of 184,320 or 3.9%
So there you go. If these % are such a big problem for you, you might want to seek help from a professional. But as stated by others, you are unqualified to decide what a proper FC is.
While you are here, what are your thoughts on removing personal housing from players who are not consistently capped when it comes to tenants? If you want to take away FC houses that are below the initial members requirement, why not advocate for the same thing for personal housing? After all, as shown above, personal housing cannot accommodate nearly as many players as FC housing.
Bonus question... should every single Free Company that falls below 4 members be terminated? Again, the initial requirement to submit a petition is 4 members.
*For the record, the % of "shell FCs" is even lower if you start adding filters like FC rank/GC status, but I had to give them a chance*
Rank 6-8 FCs with a house and 3 members or less:
NA: 3,080 out of 138,240 or 2.2%
EU: 1,807 out of 69,120 or 2.6%
JP: 5,155 out of 184,320 or 2.8%
Rank 6-8 FCs with a house and 3 members or less created since patch 4.2.
NA: 2,411 out of 138,240 or 1.7%
EU: 1,699out of 69,120 or 2.5%
JP: 1,209 out of 184,320 or 0.6%