Well unfortunately intentions are not consequences. Rent control has very visibly benefits (grandma gets to keep her apartment at close to the same rent as she has been paying for decades) but distorts the market in very subtle but destructive ways (landlords not paying for any maintenance and harassment and dehumanization of tenants paying below market rates).
There are transaction costs to everything. You think a landlord wants to go through the process of finding a new tenant and moving him in, ideally with no difference between your move out day and the new tenants move in date? Also, the protections you receive are priced into the cost. Would you take a slightly lower rent if the landlord could kick you out at any time?
> Putting down roots
This is very sentimental but that argument can be used to justify many policies that are meant to favor the recipients of a current system. In America there has been a huge transfer of wealth from the young and relatively poor to the old and relatively wealthy.
> Whether it is optimal, whether it is overapplied - since utility can't easily be quantified, that's something that everyone will have a different opinion on.
Yes, that's why we have a market and people are willing to trade based on their own utility (e.g. I signed a two year lease at a higher net effective rent)
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The assertion that, for residential rental, anything that is not a free market is "dehumanizing" to "everyone who came after you" is not self-evident.
Consider this: when someone gets an apartment, they put down roots. Their utility curve is biased towards them wanting to stay where they are. They arguably should not be asked to swap the location of where they live as easily as a day trader would sell stocks. Think about commuting for a person already making ends meet with multiple jobs; think about the disruption to a child's schooling. Rent control is designed to account for this, to dampen the dynamic system of the housing market as an attempt for greater overall utility.
Whether it is optimal, whether it is overapplied - since utility can't easily be quantified, that's something that everyone will have a different opinion on. Quoth the Dude, "That's just, like, your opinion, man." [0] You're certainly entitled to call someone else's opinion "dehumanizing," and they are equally entitled to downvote you in return.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWdd6_ZxX8c