Just in case, I hope that didn't look like I was dismissing what you said, Trumanator.
I recall that when I first looked at that region of the map, it looked like an inaccessible island. But when I was dealing with it in detail (naming and figuring locations and all that) it began to look more reasonable. And I came to the conclusion that it does offer some distinct advantages and disadvantages that sort of balance out, though they still seem to lean to the disadvantageous side given that it's set between two rush nations and another fairly strong one, and is likely to find its expansion to require conflict fairly sooner than others.
Given that, after I booted Arcoscephale from it for being doomed by its chop-licking neighbors, I wanted to put one of the semi-aquatic nations there, so that their ability to get in the water would mitigate the otherwise less-than-20-province allocation given to whoever gets it (I actually made a photoshop image with a grid of all nations, counting provinces to ensure each had space -- I can post a miniature version of it if anyone is curious).
There is some extent to which I am arguing by consequences here -- to not use that island as a starting point for anyone would require a rather extensive overhaul of many, perhaps most, start positions and many place names, so I would dread it, so if there's a way to make it work without that severe solution, I'm just itching for it.
Again, I very much appreciate your scrutiny of it, and if it really does ruin it for any nation that gets placed there no matter what one does, I agree that it just has to be moved.