What's the point of VPN in this game?

Someone on my clan (the top player) did the thing where they change countries and their earnings dont count in clan leaderboards (we were first and dropped to the middle because of that, I was counting on that vip chest 😭).

I just don't get it. Maybe that way they can get top 1 in a random country, but isn't it better to get 1st place in 1st division?? They would've gotten around 1500 gems with the clan chest.

There must be something I am missing on how that exploit works because there is no way someone is willing to pay a VPN for that.

And no there is no way they legit traveled to that place because it was from Spain to Australia (14h flight or so).