So devs don't understand math.

[Eraden]

I think you're ignoring why players keep asking for access to gardening. It's not because they want "some form of gardening" to do. That's already available via flowerpots in FC rooms and apartments. Any seed you can buy from the MB or a vendor can be grown in flowerpots (which is more than you can say for garden patches - you can't grow the decorative flower seeds in those).

It's because they feel the prices for things like Thavnairian Onions are too high so they want to be able to cross breed to get the seeds and then grow the onions themselves. "Some form of gardening" in Island Sanctuary isn't going to provide that.

It's also clear that instanced housing is not off the table when they gave us apartments in the first place. Apartments are instanced housing. It exists in the game. The question is whether SE is willing to expand on it so it provides more of what makes house ownership more attractive than apartment ownership.

Island Sanctuary was not being developed to satisfy housing demand. It was developed to satisfy other requests coming from the player base (primarily the JP side) for things like being able to have more than one minion out at a time. I don't envy SE the rage they're going to have to face when specific details about Island Sanctuary get released and players found out they've been misled by other players like you that insist it's to satisfy housing complaints.

Crossbreeding can only be done at the moment, in garden plots at houses. I see nothing in what I wrote that would invalidate the theory that Island Sanctuaries are a way to provide access to that sort of activity while not owning a house. That addresses the gardening concerns of those who can not get houses. Additionally, you appear to be ignoring the reports by others that Yoshida is not in favor of instanced housing and prefers the ward system. I would submit that until he changes his mind on that issue, instanced housing (with all of the functionality of current housing plots) is indeed off the table. For now. Which is a shame because I'd like to see an expanded system for apartments and maybe even instanced housing as well. Also, I never wrote that Island Sanctuaries are meant to "satisfy housing complaints". I wrote that they may be, in part, meant to satisfy the desire for gardening without having to address the housing issue. This is a bit more nuanced than what you are suggesting I wrote.