> especially in these large cities with kooky renter protections that make it nearly impossible to evict someone

The problem is that there will always be more voting renters than voting landlords. So in a purely democratic system, policies which favor renters at the expense of landlords will always be supported.

And that said, some renter protections are definitely needed, because there is a subset of landlords that engage in flat out illegal behavior.

Deposit withholding, making illegal demands, illegal renter selection practices, etc.

Imho, that tends to be concentrated in the "1-5 unit" landlord range, because those landlords are usually (a) not lawyers & (b) treat their properties like pets instead of a business.