I can see nobling for a specific build. For example, would you rather have a 2k village with huge pits and almost no HQ/smithy/rax/stables/farm or would you rather have a 1k village with low pits, but high HQ/smithy/rax/stable/farm? Points really aren't everything. The actual build of the village counts for more from a logic perspective than the points do. Granted, someone at this point of that game that has 2k points probably has done a decent job of building their village "correctly". HQ is probably the most important consideration, followed by smithy, when you are planning on building a village up. The higher the HQ, the less time you have to spend on it. Resources are not really an issue for any active farmer, so I don't really consider pit levels to be all that important.
Sometimes putting things in perspective makes them look a bit different. For example, if someone has a lvl 20 wall and you knock it down when you attack, that village is really worth about 300 pts less than it "says" it is. There are all sorts of situations that could lead to unorthodox nobling patterns, too many to discuss here. I agree with the approach that nobling the target that makes the most sense (from a logic standpoint) is the best decision at the time. Circumstances will change after that and there is certainly the possibility that the best decision at the time becomes not the best decision, but you would have to know the future to be sure of that.
