I don’t know about others, but the unlinked trade posts mechanic played a major role in my house purchases.
I bought a T4 house in Everfall solely based on that linked mechanic. The reasoning was that since I want to interact with the market, I will base myself out of the settlement with the highest volume; Everfall.
Being able to access the trade post with the most volume outweighed the downside of living in “enemy” territory and having to bear the higher taxes, fees, and not being able to share storage across my faction’s territory.
Once trade posts become linked, owning a house in Everfall is becomes the worst decision possible. Technically 2nd worst, as worst-est would be an enemy settlement with all stations at Tier 1. But station tiers evolve over time and this is something everyone can work towards. However, Everfall will never be owned by my faction on my server.
Now that things are changing, I just wanna move my house into my faction’s territory. Pretty please 