I will put up my thoughts here on this;
Devils Advocacy; Whether released with or without housing the major guilds with veterans, zerg-like population, and the will to build Keeps will have an advantage whether there are houses for them to stockpile to or not. So if the keeps are released at persistence or after Release won't truly matter to the larger guilds.
My personal Opinion: The game is currently a bit lacking and housing not necessarily keeps, but housing is the simple fix for a lot of the current game issues. travelling around the map just to use a certain grinder/crusher etc is extremely time-consuming as well as the chances of running into pvp is cranked up because people are fighting over cities and the small resource amounts that are there. This wouldn't necessarily be an issue Although there is literally no player market possible at this time. (This should be priority 1 Establish a player based economy and infrastructure.) Priority #2 should be to give people something to do in terms of goals. This can be done with housing and keeps it very easily and would effectively change the way everyone is looking at the game. Right now the game is literally in a city grind for better gear and die trying to protect it or steal it from the next town over. (simplified description) I may generalize here but most of the crowd from the free stress test have stopped playing. This is simply because the game right now is 90% pvp. Even the Blue's and A-rpk groups are having nothing better to do than go pick a fight and slaughter people at the next town over.
Simply put the game in its current state lacks any focus other than killing your neighbour and making better gear. This needs to be fixed before Persistence. People are not drawn to hardcore games or sandbox games because you can simply do anything. They are drawn to them because amidst the struggle you accomplish building your first house and that accomplishment has an emotional trigger that makes you proud. You did it!! Now you can function relatively Easier without being hounded by the wars and the griefing and the player killing. You can mine in more obscure areas. You can live closer to the Sator dungeon and be a master of gathering Sator Scales or whatnot. Without housing, it's like releasing the game in a state that can be related to going into a fistfight with no arms. Everyone runs around as armless morons bouncing off each other till they get bored (Fairly Quickly) and move on to something else.
The Keeps would add more to this However they are not necessary at Persistence. Housing at a base minimal scale Is. No, I am not saying this is the only aspect of the game but it is a Critical part to it for both pvpérs, guilds and the pveérs who would rather focus on economy and trade. What is a sandbox without the ability to make something yours?
On a side note if they are going to withhold housing for a long time. The banks need to be expanded they are Way too small in their current state.