IMO, the “free parking rule” is necessary for a healthy game of Monopoly. Otherwise, the game will drag on for hours with players just slowly whittling away at each other’s properties until eventually everybody has been completely bled out.

However, that’s an intentional part of the game design; the original Monopoly was meant to showcase just how agonizing unchecked capitalistic greed can be, so games that run a long time with Pyrrhic victories are completely intended. But if you’ve got a life to live, you need to play with a few house rules to speed things along.