Yeah it's like Ultima Online. Who wouldn't want a two days advantage on where to plant your house in UO ?
The other thing is claims near dungeons, claims on the best mining spots, claims near obvious bottlenecks in land masses, claims near travel hubs or major crossroads etc. To me learning about which of these issues are relevant, what is important in deciding on where to put claims, how to make claims and all the associated game theory is a massive part of the benefit of being in alpha. Then getting a head start in actually deciding where to put your claims is massive.