This question goes in the "wishful thinking" category. There has never been, and there is not now, anything in the OZ rules about providing special benefits to non-capital gain investments made in opportunity zones. I can certainly see the notion of "Why wouldn’t the IRS/Congress/US treasury Department/President Biden want to encourage my good behavior?" Unfortunately, that’s not how the Internal Revenue Code works. Section 1400z-2, which provides the OZ rules, has several plainly stated rules, and the requirement of a capital gain is one of them. Alas, the worthiness of your investment, and the reasoning that your investment seems to accomplish most of the social objectives as the "official rules," doesn’t enter into the analysis.