As an avowed ward-lover, I certainly don't think any of those assumptions ring true in practice. The current system is patches on top of hacky fixes on top of patches and has been sagging under the weight of its own ill-conceived decisions for a very long time. Adding personal housing was a fatal mistake that we've collectively been paying for ever since, and the 'critical amount of wards' has been a number steadily moving out towards infinity with every new expansion, even with the onerous artificial restrictions piled on top of it.

I do love my ward house, warts and weird lighting pattern and all. But it doesn't at all mean that I don't also wish I could have fully-fledged spaces for alts or secondary FCs - and it doesn't mean that the status quo is at all sufficient for what I would like to do given free reign and bereft of technical restrictions.