That thought crossed my mind when we pulled out the old classic last night. We played a deck setup I wasn't familiar with (Wax Beans-22, included; but only twice through the deck; five players. Was that a mistake?) I decided (after a terrible string of luck) to shoot out the 3rd field and try for the wax and blue beans. I got smoked. (In any case, I was losing before that), so no big deal.
But has anyone ever won with the 3rd field? If not, then shouldn't we house rule the 3rd field to only cost 2 gold? (For all I know that has been changed in the newer versions, I have a very old copy of this, and have never read the newer rules).