/edit ROFL as I wrote this, the above post was written. Funny coincidence.//
I found a decent use for Shanty town last night. There was a kingdom with:
Library
Festival
Pawn
Peddler
Shanty Town
Swindler
Shanty Town actually worked pretty well early on to help me double Swindler often (two swindlers, two shanty towns, thin deck).
I then built up to five, picked up a festival, two libraries. Then more festivals, and pawns with almost all the peddler stack quickly.
He got the first two colonies, but then I drew my entire deck in 3 straight turns and won 7-3 in colonies. Shanty town was pretty decent with library, since if you don't want them you can set them aside with library, or you can set up the shanty-bonus fairly easy (i.e. library with 3 cards, draw a few greens/treasures, draw festival, draw shanty town, keep shanty town. Festival, Shanty town draw two into a pawn, shanty town, draw pawn library, draw more, etc).
I also had a decent shanty town game with Shanty Town, Goons and Tactician, where shanty was the only (and needed villiage) to allow for some huge Tactician + triple/quadruple Goons hands.
The library game was the best I've seen shanty town so far. Overall though, I'd agree, it's a subpar villiage.