We talk down about all of this, and I agree there are negative aspects to internalling + barb munching... But let's look at the positives.
Internalling:
1. A sign of account merges + coplay.
2. If a player quits, you give the vils to the closest player, or the most qualified/best players in your tribe. That means your best player (who you assume can handle more and has more micro skill) has more villages and potentially more troops to work with for the benefit of your tribe.
Barb Munching:
1. It's a church world, barb nobling is a must for tight clusters. Players should be nobled first, but eventually barbs will have to be nobled. They always get nobled.
2. If a player quits and has 4k-9k barbs lying around, why not noble it? ODA whoring is fun, but zero morale clearing on a barb ex-player is a nice advantage.
3. At the end of the world, players quit by the dozen, leaving hundreds of 9k barb vils lying around. Obvious advantages here.
We mark these ennoblement traits as newbish, but I've seen some barb noblers (who are generally turtles) outplay some of the offensive hotshots. They also become necessary mid and end game where there are more barbs than there are players. Bonus barbs are pretty cool too.
I personally don't endorse barb nobling/internalling, but they're necessary evils based on inactivity that occurs regularly on the world. It's not a knock on skill (it sometimes can be), it's just a common occurrence of this game.