House farming- easy cash or lazy gamesmanship?

I didn't house farm and I'm happy I didn't. It caused me to progress through the levels more slowly, but now as a top level player with nothing to do but wait until the next update I appreciate having something to save up for and quests to be working on instead of the random 'Grow Tomacco' or 'Have Snake Con Old People' tasks that aren't connected to anything. Having said that, I can appreciate the positives of house farming, especially for newer players wanting to generate cash more quickly and also have more buildings available for neighbors to tap for friendship points.

When people are at Level 39 with all of the buildings, land, and aspirationals, but still have a giant house farm right in the middle of their town...now that I don't quite understand!