It isn't different. If you were here in 2013, it was exactly single player survival. Making these rules allowed ruins it more. I miss old survival so much :(
The first mc server i ever played on allowes mods to use some grief prevention plugin. I forget what it was called, but they could simply go to the spot that got griefed and typed 1 command, and it would get fixed. They could also see who had gruefed the place. It would take some searching but it is a very useful tool.
Griefing claimed land is already banable, and yes I understand you want griefing unclaimed land to be banable, but that isn't very survival like.. If you don't want people to wreck your town, then claim your land. We don't need to add a plugin or a rule that says you can't grief unclaimed land, because that removes the fun in raiding other people. Also how are the staff going to be able to tell if someone raided an unclaimed house that someone actually lived in or an abandon house. This could also lead to a way to false report people. Let's say I build a house and leave it in the middle of nowhere and unclaim it. But then I teleport someone to it and they grief it. But it isn't even my house and I report them and they get banned. If you don't want your land to be destroyed, claim it, that's what /kit protect is meant to be used for.