As someone who moved across 4 countries in 10 years, I had the same opinion. Then I noticed that people who moved as often as me had no trouble to move out, rent their mortgaged apartment for more than monthly payments or sell it at a profit.
Yeah, I keep hearing about how homeowners are "chained", but I'm on my second house and I've also rented in between houses.
One apartment had an 18 month lease and the other an initial 12 month lease, with the option to renew on an 18 month, 12 month, or month by month basis. That means, unless I was willing to incur heavy penalties, I couldn't move until the lease was up. Even now, we're kind of paying a mortgage and rent because there's a couple months of overlap.
Whereas, when I sold my house, I called a realtor, said I wanted to sell and it happened when it happened. We closed in March on our current house, I could sell it today if I wanted.
I think home-ownership and rental both have their places. And someone mentioned a housing co-op situation. That's new to me. That's likely worth exploring a bit as well.
As someone who moved across 4 countries in 10 years, I had the same opinion. Then I noticed that people who moved as often as me had no trouble to move out, rent their mortgaged apartment for more than monthly payments or sell it at a profit.