To have rent control you have to have been in your apartment since before 1970. Capital improvements are how rent-controlled apartments had their rents jacked up between then and now. The majority of decontrol happened before any changes made in 2019.
The suggestion made before was that rent-controlled apartments were locked into the prices people paid 50 years ago and that's not remotely true. Also the number of rent-controlled apartments remaining in NYC is practically insignificant.
It's at the very least remotely true, if exaggerated
> [The median monthly rent for unregulated units is] $1,845
> The median monthly rent is about $1,400 for rent-stabilized units
> [The median monthly rent for rent-controlled units is] around $858
The OP was unclear, controlled units are certainly not "locked into" any price. To your point:
> rent control operates under the Maximum Base Rent (MBR) system. A maximum base rent is established for each apartment and adjusted every two years to reflect changes in operating costs. Owners [...] are entitled to raise rents the [..] the average of the five most recent Rent Guidelines Board annual rent increases for one year renewal leases [...] until they reach the MBR
https://hcr.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2022/09/fact-sheet...
Owners are so anxious to get tenants out (so they can start the gouging) that they offer tenants in controlled units buyouts to leave.
> In general, a buyout could range from $20,000 to $60,000
https://www.singhranilaw.com/post/understanding-and-negotiat...
Rent Guidelines change every year. They've typically been 2% or lower. Due to high inflation, the latest increase is 3.0%. [1]
There is no longer High-rent or High-income rent decontrol since 2019. Individual Apartment Improvements and Major Capital Improvement now provide a much smaller basis for rent increases and/or are temporary. [2]
[1] https://rentguidelinesboard.cityofnewyork.us/wp-content/uplo...
[2] https://hcr.ny.gov/system/files/documents/2021/08/rent-laws-...