Cities with housing shortages could buy their way out of the problem by investing in better commuter rail/regional rail systems to knit the exurbs to the city. There's a vast amount of underdeveloped real estate out in the exurb zones.
Real estate is always location.
They are extending one of the lines (not that one) all the way to Rockford. Harvard is one of the exceptions to the rule in that the zoning is intentionally preventing density near the station.
Metra’s non-rush hour ridership on most lines is actually higher than pre-Covid, and they are in the second year of their reconfigured fares/schedule that no longer assumes that everyone wants to go downtown. Time will tell if that is successful but it appears to be working out. They run fewer rush hour trains; the ones they do run are usually very crowded. They are running more off-peak trains in an attempt to build the ridership up.
If you want to look at an interesting experiment, check out the Elburn stop on the UP-W line. The town has blocked car access to the station and made it pedestrian/bikes only. To get to the station by car, you have to drive a big loop out of the town and come in via an access road from behind.