I understand you guys do the house "hop" thing to save money, but i've always thought it's a bit...dishonest, considering it's basically stealing money from UO.
Not judging anyone, just an observation.
I have ten accounts that I pay for. I pay for seven of them every month, so I'm paying the maximum possible cost for those. The other three I pay for every 90 days. The houses held by those three accounts include a castle on Balhae; a custom house in Malas on Great Lakes; and a custom house in Fel on Yamato. I had no problem at all placing any of those houses because all of those shards have empty plots in abundance, especially Balhae! (At least half of Luna on Balhae is completely devoid of even bare foundation plots and placing a keep or castle is easy as cake.)
I used to feel the same as you do about the 90 days off-30 days on routine. But at this point, the way I look at it is that I'm actually USING all three of these houses (plus the other ones) and I'm actively playing on each of those shards darn near every day. I certainly didn't take up spaces that someone else who never lets their subscription lapse would have or could have used and yeah, just maybe I help give the appearance to a returning or new player or a disillusioned veteran player that someone's actually around still, especially when they see the custom houses that aren't down to just bare plots.
And if you wonder why I pay for seven of the subs on a monthly basis, it's basically because I know how close I am to just quitting altogether. I've learned the hard way that when I get to the point that I'm ready to just throw in the towel, it's easier to just turn everything off for a few weeks or a month or two and then come back and be ready to pick up again where I left off. In my case, it's a lot less drastic solution than knowing that a six month renewal is creeping up on me and debating and debating whether or not to do it or just pack everything up and drop houses or just walk away and lose a lot of stuff and then probably never come back at all.
It costs me a little bit more to have that kind of flexibility, but I figure it's worth it because I'm really not ready yet to walk away from UO forever. I am certainly not very happy at all with how things are going at this point with UO overall, but I think I still have just enough hope that some major things are going to get turned around or at least show some signs of improvement to maybe make it to the end of the year at least. Beyond that I really don't know.
Edited to add: Did a little math and it looks like my way of handing my 10 accounts actually means I'm paying slightly more to EA than if I left all 10 accounts open all the time and paid for 6-month subscriptions for all of them.
(7*12*12.99) + (3*3*12.99) = 1208.07
10*2*59.99 = 1199.8
Or I could do (7*2*59.99) + (3*3*12.99) = 956.77, but then I'd constantly be facing the question of renewing accounts for six-months at a shot and probably saying it isn't worth it and shutting down most or all of them at some point. Easier to put off a decision with such finality by instead paying small monthly amounts and sticking around "just a little bit longer."