TLDR: Good feature, bad timing, expected more, won't give full judgement just yet.

Let me start by saying this is ultimately a feature that will eventually, I think, be welcomed by the community, for reasons I will explain. But my reaction was also akin to many here in feeling a little underwhelmed, though I am reserving my full judgement until next week when we see the furnishings. They never discuss furnishings on stream save for once or twice. There could be something amazing in there for all we know (such as some of the much requested stuff I'm seeing.)

I think this feature would have been more welcomed two years ago, back when we first got house linking. The way it works on console right now, we get people to come to our houses by posting our links in chat, be it guild chat or in our groups for housing tours. (Not to be confused with the new feature, but that's what we call them, lowercase.) I was actually quite excited with Linking when it came out and the only problem I had with it was we could put a link in our guild messages of the day, but not in our individual guild notes; we just had to post the numbers and hope people knew what that meant or how to use them. I would say a good half of players, if not most, don't really know how to make custom housing links to visit others' homes. (I only learned after following guides, but this information is not explained to you by the game.) I think most have a grasp on linking your own homes through the Collection menu though, but my group still has to instruct the occasional person on how.

The same situation, I feel, might apply to Essential Housing Tools. I don't have too much experience with it (I actually do have a PC account, I just don't touch it much), but I'm aware you can travel to peoples' homes using an interface. As an Xbox player, the PC housing community seems as vast as an ocean compared to our lake. I would be curious to know how much of PC housers engage with what is technically an out-of-game solution (addons). It's also possible a lot of experienced players use it, but newer players, or those who dabble in it slightly less, wouldn't go through the trouble, but would if there was an in-game option (the Housing Tours feature.)

As a result, overall I think this will help to expand on the community and make it more accessible, because the high cost to entry as well as the laborious task of finding homes to tour takes guilds or groups of people to manage, but a lot of players might not have those connections right off the bat, or are part of housing guilds, of which the biggest guilds have a limited number of applicants.

Now, as for the downside. The only thing that makes me nervous is this hinted-at "rating" system. I'm not sure how it works yet, but as someone who has to muster a lot of confidence to advertise my homes, I do not want to know if someone dislikes it or gives it a 1 star, if that's how it works. And it also sounds like there's no ability to add a description. Housing builds can be very contextual, example being fandom builds, or a certain effect the owner is trying to achieve. Descriptions are a necessity. I doubt it would be possible, but I would also like the option to add a thumbnail, but that might be asking for a lot.

I was disappointed with the feature initially. I did not have any expectations like more slots or a furnishing bag; that has already been turned down. But as soon as we got daytime control, weather control seemed a lot more likely, which would be a huge QOL and I don't think as many people would have been disappointed with such an addition. We also only got two homes, same as any other year, when the advertising hinted this update would be special. I also fail to see how Sword Singer had anything to do with the new feature; did it hint at it in some way I didn't see? I'm confused. Overall, the housing part of the stream felt like just a footnote in its own themed update, as the other QOL additions had nothing to do with housing (mount preview, curated drops, IA additions.)

Again, I withhold my full judgement until next week's PTR. It's possible that something that controls the weather, or some kind of armory pieces, could be included and they just didn't mention it. Personally, I've really wanted older structural styles expanded upon, such as Alinor or Orc style, and many others. As far as the armor, I'm not sure if they would include something as involved as Skyrim's mannequins, but I've always wanted an armory gallery like Skyrim in my player home and right now it's not really possible. It doesn't have to be mine, just any would do to make my home feel like an adventurer's. Instrument furnishings would also be nice, but we have been ignored in lieu of emotes and mementos.

Anyways, I doubt more slots will ever happen, but I will dream of it...