like... there are so many different people's needs, and accommodating them all ends up restricting everyone's behavior
you need strong systems for cleaning and food and if no one is putting those into place, things get chaotic
it's very easy for a space to get messy. if each person leaves one plate, one personal item, and one bit of detritus in the common space, suddenly it's a mess. and it's hard to clean up that mess when you don't feel responsible for most of what's in it
unless you're clearly assigning responsibilities, stuff falls through the cracks.
in a standard, romantic-partnership-style household, there's someone dedicated to helping you make sure your needs get met. but with a ton of people... let's say no one feels like doing communal grocery shopping, but i don't have a car. i have to hope someone agrees to go shopping for me or take me with them. tbh i am actually cared for because the people i'm living with care about me, but it's anxiety-inducing not knowing.
i also know i'm not easy to live with either communally or otherwise cause of messiness and pathological demand avoidance. i kind of thought communal living was a way for me to deal with that and there are ways in which it helps and ways in which it doesn't.
idk, i still like the concept but im much more skeptical than i was.
i've also been thinking for years that an in-between setup -- eg several households go in on a house that's been cut up into apartments, and each household takes one plus there's an extra for communal gathering -- would be good. but tbh even there it would be a struggle, as there's still common space and common decisionmaking.
i still have strong critiques of the nuclear family model, but the communal model has more issues than i realized and i think i was looking at it through rose-tinted glasses.