we just moved into silver league and have 3 provinces with some buildings but are ranked below a guild that has no provinces or buildings or VP per hour ... bug or what?
Every province gives different amounts of vp/h. The closer they are to the center, the higher the amount. The higher ranking guilds will probably have held some central provinces, and then lost them. Guilds fighting over the center provinces will rarely manage to hold onto them for very long, but the payout makes it worth the effort to endlessly conquer, loose, and reconquer. You won't win a map by sitting on peripheral provinces. That fighting over the most contested provinces should give greater rewards isn't a bug.
