Home ownership isn’t necessarily cheaper or better than renting.

If you're given a house, paying property taxes and insurance is almost certainly better and cheaper than renting.

I agree with your other points and overall with your perspective, but not this one.

Typical property taxes run about 1-2% of the home's overall value. Unless they were all given multi-million dollar mansions they'll be paying like 2-4k a year in property taxes. That's far less than the cost of renting a place of equivalent size basically anywhere. You can probably afford basic homeowner expenses on a job at McDonald's if you own your place outright.