Yeah, I like the map. There are a surprising number of wasteland sites that are tagged as Large (and therefore have higher income/resource/supply production rates) from the little bit I've looked around. Your comment about someone who starts at the south pole having to go through the north pole is entirely accurate though (unless it's Atlantis, then they get to go underwater), so I really hope that didn't happen. Also, the cave systems let you get almost anywhere remarkably quickly, so unless you start way in the heartland of the eastern wastes or in the south pole you should be able to get to provinces with fields (or at least non-wasteland provinces) without too much issue.
I'd highly recommend playing a handful of practice games through turn 20 or so to get a grasp on neighbor connections if you have the time. Or just playing one or two long ones, whatever works best for you.