Can't afford time or energy to do that irl, so might as well in a game.

It depends how you play the game. Sure you can grind your fingertips off and toss it into the corner when you finished everything in the game but some people love to dive into the game. Did you ever take it slow, enjoyed the scenery, the details? Same goes for housing in such games for me at least. It's a place, your place to relax, feel home. So the clanhub, It's not hurting you if you dont care but for some people it might be the cherry on top for the immersion^^

But nevertheless such things like housing should never be prioritized, or be even close to gameplay, proper content, balancing and so on. Maybe for a group of interns while they don't have things to do or so^^