Why does this read like a penance?
It's pretty obvious that the cause of unaffordable housing is elsewhere. But being the one to actually collect rent is a kind of guilt-by-association.
Renting works fine if you have some basic regulations (which admittedly is the opposite of the case in the US).
The people my ancestors stole the land from, stole it from another indigenous tribe. Go back far enough and everyone is living on stolen land.
I assume by "incentives", you mean that they'd manipulate the law to limit other suppliers. I'm sure that happens, but as a landlord you don't have to do that. And being a landlord (who isn't manipulating the law) doesn't make the problem any worse.
Criticism should be directed at the real problems. Those are a mix of law and culture and just inertia.
There's an error in your analogy.
Nobody is growing carrots, they're buying carrots
Incentives push the carrotlords to pass local ordinances. 'Show me the incentive and I'll show you the outcome'
and the don't have to do anything illegal to restrict the housing supply - they can lobby, regulate, and vote
Regardless, the small landlord who buys a single family house and rents it out still puts a new house into the rental market, making it more affordable than it previously was on the purchase market. Along the way a landlord typically makes improvements and pays for maintenance, which improves the supply.
If you don't like laws then complain about the laws. The act of renting a house to someone else is not the problem.