This is what people don't seem to understand. NIMBYism is vilified as the cause of all evils, when in reality there's a limit to how many people can be housed.

This is what people don't seem to understand. NIMBYism is vilified as the cause of all evils, when in reality there's a limit to how many people can be housed. Imagine suggesting that the reason people in Beijing or Seoul or Delhi don't have 1 acre lots and 3-bedroom houses is because of NIMBYism. At a certain point, owning a house in certain cities is simply not a reality anymore. Whether it's through sheer population size or sheer population wealth, NYC, LA, etc will never be a small town again. Fighting NIMBYism will just turn them from dense cities into Judge Dredd-like hives, as you said. But hey, I want a nice big property with a nice big house out in the country, so I'm not complaining if everybody insists on renting little shoeboxes in the big cities.