I could see this going terribly awry. it isn't Farmville without social aspects, of course, and it makes sense that they would let the guys be a part of that. However, I'm a little worried that the other players will begin to betray the tactics of one farmer to the other. There's plenty of room for sabotage, so there should be some rules, such as not allowing people to post on Kessler's or Steve's wall, and not being allowed to read the in-game notes that you're allowed to leave. 
 
The social aspect is awesome, but I don't want it to ruin the competitive nature of the game.

As they said in the video, it's now just going to be a popularity contest.

As for sharing strategies, I don't really think that will be too much of a problem . Even if Steve finds out that Kessler is making mad bank with his cotton growing, it wouldn't really make sense for him to try and catch up. Kessler has "committed" to the cotton path, and he'll reach mastery (or whatever it's called) pretty soon. If Steve were to try and copy his strategy, he'd always be a week behind. It would be much smarter for him to try and figure out his own way of pulling ahead. 
 
The one thing I'm slightly worried about is that users are just going to start sending them FarmBucks or whatever, and then it's just going to be a matter of who gets sent more. But they could easily make some policy about that, like that they aren't allowed to accept monetary help, only help with things like fertilization and stuff that requires cooperation.  
 
And I haven't played FarmVille, but can't you only have like six neighbors? I'll bet that both of them will end up with that, easily. And even if that's not the case (again, I have no idea), probably they'll get about just about the same number of people helping out.  
 
Really, I don't think it will ruin the competition at all. In fact, I'm looking forward to them doing stuff that isn't "plow, plant and harvest a billion tiny fields". There's going to be a bunch of stuff they can do now which seems more interesting. 

All I know is that Kessler would have won without it. Still wish I had placed my own wager.

Even though I signed up just to give stuff to both of them, I do wish it was not socially open. Now I guess it's good that we can get involved with it, but I feel terrible.

If the social part of the game (adding neighbors, visiting other farms, item trading) wasn't so bugged up the cuss it would probably be affect the game quite a bit.