I was just guessing! I don't think they see a map, or edit stuff out. I do think even if a team picked the goats, since they would have had to drive by the potato task, and they would have just pulled in, as they are allowed to change tasks, and they aren't bound by their original decision.
I agree on your second point - the difference in the two tasks is accounted for. The goats task looked faster, and was a little further away. It's just once they were at the potato, the risk of finding the soap task would have been that - a risk of time to find it. And since PEI is small, looking on the map once they were headed there, would have looked significantly farther.