Potential quick and uninteresting victory here if a villager with the Black Death persuades ten friends to join the game and stand next to them.

I disagree with your reasoning Kevan. If they persuade ten friends to join they can win anyway by lobbying forth whatever they want, not because of this rule.

True enough, that’s always there. But a block-vote like that is just as easily reversed by other players also recruiting some friends and voting to undo whatever happened. I’m not sure people would vote to reverse a “get 10 players to press this button” victory - I think most players would see it as fair usage of loophole.