I think they dipped their toes in the water with Garrisons.
Then they seriously under delivered compared to what was promised.
Then the players didn’t use them much.
So now they have an excuse to not implement player housing.
Basically, player housing would be a huge expenditure of resources (people, time and money), and they’ve never wanted to do it. When they did something housing-adjacent with Garrisons, they didn’t have the resources to do it right.
Remember Ray D. Tear? You have to ask what you’re willing to give up to get fully implemented player housing.
I’d love a decent player housing system, but WoW is unlikely to deliver one.