I agree that it was a strange thing to release. It large games, I find that a few players get their barns on the game-breaking farm and those that don't are almost out of the running, which is a shame.
One of the most enjoyable games that I remember from the early days of the "Weekly" game was
this one. Rosco was the first to place his barn but jungleboy and I both placed our own on nearby farms that weren't nearly so valuable. However, JB and I ended up merging our barn farms and then joined forces to get our shared barn farm onto Rosco's barn farm. We eventually succeeded in this for a grand total of 76 points each! B1nder however didn't get to place his barn and ended up coming last because of it...
EDIT: Another of my favourite barns can be found
here. I even got a merit for it!