>Social housing just manifests the imbalance in waiting lists instead of prices. It's not like people who get stuck in the queue are having a better time than people who can't afford the market rate.
This is under the assumption that demand often outstrips supply. That's actually less likely to be true with an effective social housing policy in place.
>Building more housing in desirable places to accomodate shifting demand and growing population is just as important under social housing, but even less likely, since the demand is totally disconnected from the incentives and capital required to do it.
Lol. And you think a "free" market will improve the connection between demand and the incentives required to do it? Far from it. With a social housing policy, at least more housing will be built, because it's part of the plan.
Here's another place where a social housing policy has worked very well:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_housing_in_Singapore
Structurally, Singapore has a Georgist tax policy (it's effectively a tax haven where the majority of the population pay no income tax) that funds a very active building program. So no, the demand is actually more connected to the incentives and capital required to do it than under a so-called "free" market.