Posted on behalf of @silver tundra
About current Illuvium zero land situation:
Land prices has fallen from 100% at the initial land sale to about 4.5% of initial price. Value of fuel crates given equal to aprox. 1.7% value of the initial price, making it a fall from 100% to 6.2%. After months of profit for fuel burning and or blueprint minting, the fall would still be from 100% to less than 8% of initial investment. It means land investors who bought at initial land sale have not profited at all despite playing the game for months and also lost about 92% of the money they spent. Each case has different numbers, % are approximate but shows the situation of those who bought at the initial land sale. The main reason of the fall probably is the limited player base and fuel sales at the current stage, but there is more reasons that explains the fall.
What was promised vs what it is:
Promised:
Paid land players will be the only ones to produce fuel and the company will be able to sell an additional 19 times that amount of fuel. Since fuel is necessary to play illuvium games it's likely to be a scarce resource and when the amount of players rise, the demand for it will be even higher. Being a land owner is the best way to secure access to fuel.
Reality:
IZ players don't decide fuel production, instead fuel can always be bought at a fixed price at the website. This change was necessary for the good of Overworld and the whole economy system but land owners ended very short from initial expectations after paying for them.