Seriously, it's no problem at all to make a few alts, feed them shewbreads, have them idle for belief sliders, then bam in a week you have as many free claims as you made alts. It takes even less time if you bother to cycle faster curios on them. Then boom, a large static claim that you never have to play on the owner hearthling again, unless your main dies and you need to re-kin permissions.
Personal claims shouldn't be able to work if you don't actively work your land. How can you claim ownership over empty land or water? Considering the ease of of claiming this way, natural resources are a joke and can be monopolized with almost no effort at all.
The only solution for other people is to either join this inflated land-grab race, or to risk leaving scents everywhere. And the only defense hearthlings have in this game is either being inconspicuous, or having a large defense network. For small groups or hermits the easiest way to do this is have vaults. So then it's just assholes hiding in vaults griefing everyone elses alt-claimed resources. Oh wait that's the game as-is now isn't it?