I similarly struggle with that pessimism. I mentioned below that our primary goal is to even access to homeownership across people who make similar incomes.

A big component of housing-related credit is equity (ie. collateral). Many parts of that dynamic are very rational -- having equity is a proxy for financial responsibility (you know how to save money, or have access to other people who don't mind occasionally gifting you equity). Having equity also buffers the lender from loss when housing prices cycle, which is a very important part of building resiliant financial infrastructure.

I think our high-level argument is that for a very specific group of people (tenured employees) in very specific places (urban diversified economies that are resistant to land bubbles), there is opportunity to push the edges of the box.