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Notes -
Yes, it's fair that I am no longer defending @atelier viewpoint. Theirs sounds like "rules got stricter over time and costs increases" while mine is more "rules didn't change but the costs to follow the rule increases". I was thinking about your examples again and maybe the reason is essentially what moved what.
In the suburb example, the supply stayed the same but demand increased. Obviously demand increases prices, but because it's perfectly inelastic supply prices can go as high as long as demand can meet it. We could, theoretically, calculate the economic rent which is the "excess" purely because of the supply constraint of red tape.
In the oil example, the market is already in equilibrium where supply is very flexible to demand, allowing prices to stay stable as supply is turned on and off (essentially the reverse of "if [oil] prices are going lower, why drill more?"). The war reduced supply and that's the biggest or initial constraint, demand has still remained the same, red tape didn't create the situation because without the war there would be no price shock, so that's why arguments for red tape here is meaningless and/or misleading.
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