Well nobling barbs, is something I think is an important issue to most players, the length of this thread, and the amount of good comments in it, is testament to that.
I think there are two issues here...
1. TW want to encourage new players to the game, they want it to be easy for them to take villages, and so the last few worlds they have made, have large barbs, and in World 6, the added bonus that barbs automatically upgrade thier techs to lvl 10, up to the capabilities of the smithy in the barb vill. This is a huge benefit, and of course not only makes it easy to take villages without fighting, but also gives you an advantage over players who work hard to take out other players.
2. Experienced players of TW prefer to take out other players, this is a war game, a noble is an expensive weapon, and best used to take out an enemy, and the only real way to win, at the end of the day, is to noble your opponents. Unless of course, you have unlimited tribe membership. In which case you can just hug and invite the whole world.
I think the solution to this is quite simple. Everytime TW make a new world, they should make two instead.
One for beginners, with high barbs, large tribe numbers etc, and one for experienced players with 1k barbs, and smaller tribe membership limits.
Personally I love the challenge of taking a real player out, I encourage everyone in Avaz to do the same, as far as I am concerned, nobling barbs is simply a waste of a noble, a barb is there to farm, and a noble is a weapon.