To be fair it’s useful for crafting purposes, and I’d break it sometimes
Iron is the most craftable/useful item in Minecraft, and it can be seen as the next best thing below diamond. It makes sense for an item like Block of Lapis Lazuli to be under a chest because of its lack of usefulness besides enchanting, but iron is a lot better
Firstly, crafting iron armor. This could be especially useful when it’s a round of Basic items, or I’d sometimes replace Protection I chainmail armor with iron (though I’m not sure if that’s effective, just kind of a habit). You can also use the iron from the block to craft a better sword
Most importantly, it can be used for crafting smithing tables which makes this map slightly OP in a way. I’ve smelted 4 iron ingots (or however many it takes) to make a smithing table, and that in itself is risky and tedious. You can get those instantly and easily with an iron block
In rounds where the center is taken over by a full netherite guy, I can finally amount to him by getting netherite of my own. Take that, netherite guy!
I have a positive view of the iron block, which is a thing that’ll differ with each player, kind of like playing styles
For me personally, a chest on top would annoy me more than the iron block itself and would kind of make it more of an obstacle