So devs don't understand math.

[Jojoya]

How about getting an apartment then? You'll have limits but it's your own space, costs fraction of what the house costs and you'll never lose it. Seen enough barely decorated houses to feel more than enough people doesn't really commit to the house as much as they claim they do/would.

Apartments lack gardening, which is a feature players commonly want access to.

Apartments lack the ability to place outdoor furnishings.

Apartments lack multiple floors, which makes certain certain decorating tricks impossible without the use of third party mods. Why can players doze on the Manor Couch on the ground floor of my FC's small? Because I floated a bed in the basement up to the ceiling directly under the couch. Try to hide a bed in an apartment to do the same trick uses up a lot of valuable space (and a greater percentage of the item limit). Want a marble staircase? You can do that in a house by floating Marble Paritions up through the ceiling of a lower floor. You can't do it in an apartment.

Don't get me wrong - I'm a proponent for more use of apartments, especially by players worried about taking breaks from the game and worried about demolition. What's the point of having a house in a game you rarely play? But there still are not enough houses for the players who would make regular use of them and want access to the things an apartment can't provide.

As for barely decorated houses, there can be multiple reasons such as the player only wants access to garden/workshop but neither are available without house ownership, or the player likes more sparsely decorated areas. Not everyone wants a house cluttered up like a bad thrift shop.