I am just trying to think of this from a Goan viewpoint. I assume that the ownership of a beach shack on a busy beach is pretty much a licence to print money, and will provide income to last the whole year. Stands to reason that an enterprising young Goan would like to get his feet on the first rung of the ladder and be awarded a licence. BUT the old hands want to protect their seniority and not be pushed out by any newcomer. I know that some Goan families, beach livers for ages, probably starting out as the owner of a fishing boat (where are they now?), and then sidelined into beach shacks before giving up fishing completely.
My favourite shack is Jackies next to the Golden Eye restaurant, and fits this description exactly. It would be unthinkable for me to go anywhere else during my stay in Goa as like many writers here, you build up, at least in your own mind, a bond with the family. The problem is that they dont own the beach where they set up the shack and in the eyes of the law have nothing to make then different from a newcomer.
Add in the complications of Indian officialdom, antagonism from hotel owners, corruption and general incompetency and this situation arises.
Goa has nothing to recommend it to any other business; Tourism is all it has. One writer points out that he thinks there are enough 'Indian' tourists to allow it to run without caring for the European guests. I dont know whether that is true. Some here shout out the charms of Thailand, a country I am familiar with more so than Goa. Somewhere like Pattaya would not survive without free spending Westerners to support the high end businesses. I feel that goa is the same. The hotels and nice restaurants are only there because of European tourists coming for the winter fortnight.
There is already a massive undercurrent of problems between the native Goans and the Karnatakans who come in to provide much of the labour and market stalls. The longer you visit Goa, the more you become aware of all this, the more heartbreaking it becomes until eventually you go somewhere else.
I suspect that the current slowness with the shacks has behind it something more than just who owns the shacks. There is a power struggle going on , and once money starts to be lost in a big way ( from about now in my view), I think it will all resolve quickly. Hope so anyway.