I understand that the current rule is that when F500,000 or more of land has been regioned for a city and it has been approved, half the land value is sent back. This still leaves a barrier for players to create cities, and creates risks people simply don’t want to take. It’s been made clear that the majority of players now support switching it back. So why can’t the staff?
There’s plenty of lands to go around on the server, especially on the outskirts. The absolute and incredibly unlikely maximum someone would spend on land at F5 is only ~1400 b^2. Not only that, but the repeating exchange of F5 land between the government and players can bring in future revenue when the government might need it, and is only for short periods before the land is either used or sold back.