It could just be an attention grabber. I used to do that as a City RPG host a lot last year, you either host while wip or build crap and then build the actual stuff, then allow people to keep their stuff, kinda like an early head start.
Now, that said, roads are one of the hardest things to design, especially turns. I've hosted and co-hosted lots of cities, and brick count with good aesthetics is hard to combine.
That said, sagacity's city build is an excellent example of that balance, if you removed the light poles.
Ideally the server doesn't bother me, being a co-host with psp, because I'll bet my Volvo, my golden retriever, my guitars and my left kidney that he doesn't have a hosting service.
10 houses later, that mod paired with the spam houses will run his server into the ground.
