[Geckorian]

I agree that placing noob huts and signs on land you will never use is bad. I can also see where people might get carried away with trying to stake out their land. But I can also see where if you have plans for a big build you would want to stake out the borders of that build with something. I can also see where people would not want to run into the problems we had on the last world where they find a spot and start building only to find out that there is someone already there on the other side of a hill or tree line or worse, underground with no markers above ground to indicate they are there.
I personally have plans for a large sprawling city and have marked rough borders of where I plan to build that city with small guardhouses. I have done this because we are only allowed a limited number of starting bricks w/ the gold shovels and it would otherwise be easy for someone to come along, mark a spot 100 bricks from my claim blocks and lay down their claim blocks. I don't want that to happen. By the terms of HT, my guard houses prevent that while I gather the needed materials and terraform to build my city.