I'll give an analogy: my dad used to hoard toilet paper, preferring to "own" large stockpiles of it rather than just get it as necessary from the store. Why? Because he grew up in WW2, in an occupied country, and had to shit in the river and wipe his butt with stones. This doesn't even compute for my American-born generation: to us, the supermarket is always there, and if you need toilet paper you go buy it.
Similarly, if you can assume that another rental will always be there when you need it, there's no need to own. And in dense urban areas with lots of landlords, that's a pretty valid assumption. Somebody refuses to rent to you (which has happened), just rent from somebody else. I'd rather own financial assets like stock - which I can take with me anywhere, and which usually have a much greater monopoly position than the landlord - and then use the income thrown off by them to rent accommodation.
Would I be fucked if there were a financial crisis or breakdown in social order? Yes. But if I were to own a typical 1/4 acre suburban detached home, I'd still be fucked - because you're still renting water & sewer access from the city, electricity from the utility, Internet from Comcast, food from the grocery store, etc, not to mention that your ownership only extends to your ability to pay the bank monthly. If you want to actually be secure & independent, you not only need your own land with a sturdily-built home, you also need solar panels, well water, a septic system, and obscurity. And you need to own it free & clear with no debts.
A similar logic applies to people who take Uber instead of owning a car, or who pay monthly for a SaaS instead of buying software outright, or who get food delivered rather than owning cookware and cooking themselves. As long as they can count on the service always being available, it works.
I don't see how the risk of being evicted (is this something people worry about?) is any greater than the numerous possible disasters that could strike a place you own in ways renters don't have to worry about.
This kind of semantic babble only serves to cloud people's judgment. For some people, owning makes more sense. For others, renting makes more sense. Not sure what is hard to understand about that.
However, after doing the math I think I will rent for my entire life since it makes much more sense financially (much to my surprise)
At any point that I feel like it, I can pick up and move. Whether it is to a place across the street or on the other side of the country.
I wouldn't have nearly that much freedom if I had the misfortune of owning my own place.
Buying a home is a bad investment, because I could have all that money getting 7% returns in the stock market.
One very reasonable 'end game' for those who do not want to own is to invest enough cash in the stock market so that your rate of return supersedes your rent, thus guaranteeing that, if rent increases are within reason, you are able to finance renting interminably. Stock markets typically have a higher rate of return than real estate, so...