There are a couple of reasons why players like playing these types of games, Jeod likes the manipulation elements and back and forward communications, but he got caught in a situation where it was a question of actions and abilities, and so he couldn't use his preferred style of play.
It's also just a rough situation for Mafia to be in, since they generally can't get out of it no matter what they try to do. The entire game basically ended as soon as there wasn't a NK, and the entire game basically got railroaded into a specific script.