I can only speak from my own experience and if you like I could point you to certain areas of the map where KnK players have not only taken some of the barbs, they have taken ...ALL... of the barbs.
I'll repeat that ...ALL... of the barbs.
Look at the area you're talking about - admittedly a nice sea of KnK villages as far as the eye can see, no barbs in sight - or at least, barely any.
Now - check the history of those villages on TW Stats
I can guarantee you that the vast majority of these areas in question will have been nobled by accounts either before being killed off by KnK, or by accounts which have subsequently joined KnK as they've proven themselves
For some reason - people have the misconception, that nobling barbs will help them grow stronger... whereas infact, nobling barbs slows you down significantly.
Why take a 3k barb, when you can take a 9k built village for comparably little cost? and in the process you increase the village number gap between you and the enemy by 2 villages. (you gain one, they lose one).
There are exceptional reasons for taking barbs - sometimes it is strategicly sound to do so. Perhaps someone should mention this to HT who are currently grabbing barbs on the rim. I've never seen a more pointless strategy!!... so they get rimmed and don't need to restart... wow, they have 1 village :icon_biggrin: