I had a similar thread about the issue. Some good points were made.
From my perspective, I can say that if a fair system is put in place, people are going to create some pretty cool cities with the intention of selling houses/land to other players to live. I’ve seen this done in other games, and it creates a VERY dynamic economy (something I think Boundless already has but can certainly gain more from).
As for other players greifing/ abusing the system, I doubt it will happen much. Boundless is all about growing and building together, and if somebody blocks off a certain direction, just build over/around them or in another direction.