If the cost/benefit ratio was more in line with "reasonable living" versus "I'm putting up with this for three years to make bank and then getting the fuck out,

If the cost/benefit ratio was more in line with "reasonable living" versus "I'm putting up with this for three years to make bank and then getting the fuck out," that's one way. Could landlords have completely forestalled people leaving? No. Could they, as a group, have done a lot more to actually agitate for--versus opposing--things like new housing to keep market prices stable (rather than a hockey stick) and worked with tenant groups to aim for a tenancy system that balances each group's needs more directly, rather than "rent consumes almost all available resources?" Yes. Had landlords tried to work in concert with the people who provide the source of income for landlords, rather the opposing them at almost every turn, the "exodus" might be a rather expected "trickle." They made their bed of housing scarcity in these possibly-former-hot markets...they can lie in it.