[anamax]

People often need to solve the problem of finding a house where the number is readily apparent.

In some/many places, one could find that house by interpolation. (In the US, even numbers tend to be on one side of the street and odd numbers on the other. And they're almost always in-order.) With an apartment, things can be more complicated.

That said, there are instances of "vanity addresses", where "<some number> 5th Ave" appears to not be on 5th Ave.

I don't know what one does in Japan, where the numbers are supposedly assigned chronologically. (Hmm - I wonder what triggers number generation and if they ever reuse or allow transfers.)