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How is it Demoralizing?

I'm going to start this by saying that the argument about people shouldn't camp plots for extended hours is unfortunately invalid. We're going to, it's just reality. We'll get that later.

Paying a subscription to not play a game

We're all people who have paid for the game and continue to support it through a subscription. Housing aside for a moment, when you are playing an MMO that you pay a sub fee for and you find yourself not actually playing it then most of us will just eventually cancel the subscription. It's nothing out of anger, you just eventually feel silly for paying for something you aren't using. The logical thing behind it is that you pay for something, you should probably use it otherwise it's a waste of your resources. Before this gets pumped full of "oh so you'll cancel sub if you don't get a house?" - we're not going there, I'm just making a point to help with understanding the demoralizing effect the housing can have and this is necessary to understand for my overall point.

The Psychology of the Near Miss

With the random timer, the above is a feeling that sneaks up on you. Housing stopped being the equivalent of a band-aid being ripped off where you would go about your business and hope for next time, and became a sort of endemic infection. Unintentionally, Square is using the psychology of the near miss, which is a phenomenon in gambling that keeps people continuing to gamble in hope that despite all these losses, "they were just so close! Surely, this next one will be the winner!" This has been studied for decades, but first in 1986 by professor Reid at the university of Exeter. In the study it states that the manipulation of gambling machines to have near misses would have almost the same impact on the desire to continue gambling as winning, keeping the person going.

How does that apply here? Well, how do you feel when you have been spam clicking the placard and it suddenly sells to someone? Most likely, you think to yourself "If only i had clicked faster. I could have gotten it." You just barely missed it, so next time you're going to try harder. You're going to click faster, you're going to try to exert some sort of control in a situation you can't control, but feel like you could if you just improve your odds. It's almost like an addiction, but one grounded in and dependent on hope. The frustration builds each time, but we continue to engage hoping this time will be the win because last time we were just SO CLOSE.

Relocation Whiplash

Not much to summarize. You camped a plot for hours, it's in its most expected sell window, your hands and fingers are dying. Someone strolls up and transfers their house there. Good game. See you all tomorrow at that persons old plot. At any minute, you can just blanket lose to someone who already has what you're trying desperately to obtain because they weren't happy with what they already had.