Even with the generous government subsidies HDB flats (both resale and BTO) are rediculously expensive. Also to qualify for the higher tier subsidies requires you to earn a lower monthly salary, so your best bet is to BTO/ buy a resale when you are unemployed or in college with your college sweetheart.

Also now the required downpayment has increased from 10% to a whooping 20% now. Who the hell has 80k sgd in their bank account at their late 20s???

Yea but the price of a Built-to-Order (BTO) is also based on the resale HDB market price.

Context: once you receive keys to your BTO flat, you have to fulfill a minimum accupancy duration (5 years) before you can sell them to the free market as a resale flat, where the price tend to be much higher even after a lot of government subsidies. Resale flats are quite expensive because you get to pick which HDB and location whereas BTO flats requires you to ballot (based on luck) + wait 7 years for it to be build.