Some of those towns may be side towns (feeder towns). A couple of the towns described above sound exactly like my side towns.
One had 1000+ white houses. I was farming for xp's and it worked nicely. Probably got 30 doughnuts from it. It also gave me something to do during non-events. I take them down for visiting events. This time I just left them down.
My other two side towns have all the buildings crammed into the corner and I have just enough land for the crammed buildings. Someday I will get around to designing these towns, but right now I don't have time. But, when I do get to designing these towns they will have all the event buildings. That's why I keep them going.
I have a few friends in each side town. I do visit my friends from my side towns during events as well.
