[pandaman]

If you get rent lower than mortgage and free maintenance then you are not going to get anything fancy for that. You cannot get more without paying more and the vast majority of people would rather buy and pay for their own dwelling than spend double to improve/return somebody else property.

Multiplexes are absolutely not going to allow the modifications to stay: they have the basic appliances because they can maintain them cheaply. Your Whirpool fridge broke? Handyman can pull one from an unoccupied unit or replace with a spare he keeps on hand because it's expected that appliances in 20+ unit building are going to fail regularly. You want a Sub-Zero fridge in your apartment? It only makes sense if you buy one yourself, remove and store the original and then replace it with original when the lease ends. Otherwise the landlord is stuck with servicing a fridge where just a door panel costs more than an entire fridge in other units. Same with everything else.

This has nothing to do with the view on renters but basic economics.