It seems that if people were allowed to do whatever they wanted with housing, with no possibility of it being forced to change, then the predictive entrenchment

It seems that if people were allowed to do whatever they wanted with housing, with no possibility of it being forced to change, then the predictive entrenchment would strongly incentivize the creation of new areas and developments. Right now nearly all of the US is relatively undeveloped. A quick ddg search puts the figure at 3% of the US as being urbanized. And I think in times past it's very likely that this entrenchment did play a major role. There was a time when we had some rather modern and well developed cities with great standards of living, and then a whole chunk of land that was completely inhospitable and filled with often hostile native inhabitants. Yet instead of the United States becoming an extension of Philadelpha, New Amsterdam/New York City, and Boston, a figuratively and literally rich nation expanded outward independent of these hubs.