Maybe in other places, but in California we've been massively underproducing homes by any measure. There's no danger of California cities becoming "beholden to developers" anytime soon.
Expanding on this a little, the developers who can survive in the current restricted environment are not going to be happy about getting more competition, and are likely to favor a relatively restricted environment like the one that they currently operate in. The benefits of a looser regulatory environment would accrue to all the people who might want to be developers but can't, due to the high bureaucratic hurdles that only the large corporations or the truly dedicated can overcome.