I don't understand the confusion about the value of durations.
The fact that you can only play them every other turn is sometimes a drawback and sometimes a significant advantage. And in both cases, it has to do with what you're getting from it.
If it's a "terminal" duration that gives you something good now and something good later, but never gives an action, you can actually think of it in terms of it taking 1/2 an action to play, requiring fewer extra actions. That's what makes Wharf so great. An entire 14-card deck can, theoretically, be drawn every turn with 4 Wharves and only a single Village! (two from last turn, two on this turn, repeat.) It takes one Village to play two terminals, but it will play 4 terminal durations.
Fishing Village, on the other hand (also a great card) even though it gives you both an extra action now and an extra action later, doesn't double the number of terminals you can run because it stays out for a turn. Two Fishing villages still only plays three Smithies, no matter how you stack them. But precisely because they stay out, you can think of them as drawing 1/2 a card. They cost a card draw the turn you play them, but the next turn they don't.
It takes six Caravans to draw a deck of 11 cards every turn. It takes three Labs to achieve exactly the same thing. What could anyone possibly be arguing about? The best thing about Caravan is being below the $4 magical gainer price point.
So, think of Ghost Town as drawing 1/2 a card and giving you 1/2 an action. If it was the only Village, it would take four Ghost Towns in order to run 3 Smithies. Two Villages, theoretically, do the same job.
My prediction is that it will be absolutely outstanding as an engine support card in kingdoms...but mostly with other villages. Get two. Start every turn with an extra card and an extra action so that you can start your engine chain with a big draw card first; that's huge! But in kingdoms where it's the ONLY source of +actions, I see it as a potential trap unless you can build an engine with a very small number of terminals.
Why am I talking like engines are the only deck type that exist? Because we're talking about a Village variant. How many villages do you buy when you're playing BM or points rushes?