PE has nothing to do with any of it. They are totally up-front, even in their prospectuses, that the only reason they are in this game is because witless dupes (paraphrasing) in local governments are too stupid to build houses. If we would build anything, they wouldn't be in the game.

Private equity has lots of benefits that are never discussed because they make good bogeyman. Existing management is not always good, and I do not benefit from companies employing unnecessary workers and passing the price through to me.

They very well may. But they are notorious for strip mining and killing viable companies, because they do.