Even without all of the financial aspects everyone else has mentioned, if you own the home you can do whatever (well, with approval from the local homeowner committee if applicable). Don't like a wall separating the kitchen and living room? Tear it down. Want to rip up your yard and install new grass and a garden? Go ahead.

My current landlord allows pretty much no modifications to anything, just recently cut down the only 2 (40+ year old) trees around the house (for insurance purposes apparently), and won't allow anything to be planted in the yard except for flowers in a garden. I want an actual vegetable garden, and I would've never cut down those two trees. All of this is on top of the financial aspects of actually owning the house and paying rent to contribute to an asset (which at least in my area is about 40% cheaper, sans maintenance and taxes) and when it's paid off, I don't have any more rent...