Most customers, particularly Americans, have no idea what good design is--they'd design a home in much the same way Homer Simpson designed his car with every bell and whistle. That's not to say that labor, permitting, and cost of goods aren't problematic, but by far the biggest problem is investors making the "design" decisions based on pro formas with minimum IRR of 15%. Their decisions amount to making development and construction processes as standardized as possible (pick one: single family stick homes or 5/2 multifamily) as to obviate ANY potential for non-standard process outcomes, e.g. community objections, zoning variances, etc.