Many, if not most, landlords will have to rely on depreciation

Depreciation at least will defer your income tax, or to make the paper balance  of income "negative" for a well 30 years. In fact IRS is "kind" to allow depreciation.

BTW, nobody knows for 1000% sure if IRS will make depreciation automatically, but it is a safe bet they want to use an easy way by not differentiating who select and who doesn't.

Ever heard of missed reporting $200K stock trading income to IRS, and the real missed portion is merely $200?

Also you can pass on your cost increase, if not all, to tenant. So they are the real meat ... :)