Hm InterestingEh I don't know. He always seemed suscipous to me because when you got to that deserted island in ACNH he didn't mentioned how you need to owe him bells because thats something he tells the player character yet none of the villagers didn't have to pay to get their own home. Now that I think about it was mostly the player character that had to do all the work and the villagers didn't have to pay for it.
Remember how later in the game how he asks you to build the homes for the next 3 villagers that were moving in? That is proof that he makes you do all this work for him, because he can't be bothered to do it himself. He knew he would get in trouble for the getaway package if all he offered were tents so to avoid that he made the player character make the homes just so he acts like its more of a worth it package than what it was originally was.
Either way, Tom Nook has always been that one NPC that is always filled with greed. The moment he tells you to do something its always something to do with bells that you owe him. He tries to act like "Oh no its fine you can pay it later" but deep down he knows that he just is saying that because he wants you to pay him more bells whenever you ask him to do an upgrade.
When villagers say "I don't think I could ever pay off my loans like that" then how does that allow them to live on the island? Thats Nintendo Logic if villagers can getaway with living on your island and not paying their loan to live there. Maybe I'm reading too deep into this but that always kinda bothered me the first time when I played AC.Hm Interesting
I don't want to agree nor disagree with your opinion because I think it is valid as any other
But I do want to mention sometimes after paying a loan in New Horizons I had my Normal Villagers compliment me working hard to pay off my loans and they say "I don't think I could ever pay off my loans like that" So I don't know I think the villagers DO need to pay for their homes maybe but since they say they couldn't pay off their loans maybe Tom Nook also waits until the villagers pay off their loans and they could like never pay since he's just gonna keep waiting. IDK
I don't really have an opinion on Nook, I don't really know what I want to think.
Yeahhh that does make sense especially since I've had villagers say numerous dialog that implies they are quite poor(I'm assuming they earn bells from fishing and bug catching)When villagers say "I don't think I could ever pay off my loans like that" then how does that allow them to live on the island? Thats Nintendo Logic if villagers can getaway with living on your island and not paying their loan to live there. Maybe I'm reading too deep into this but that always kinda bothered me the first time when I played AC.