There's a danger here, of which I imagine they're aware - higher-order effects are very hard to estimate in chance and magnitude, or in how your actions specifically contributed to them. This makes them perfect for justifying whatever you want, intentionally or accidentally. Overemphasize some positive second-order effects, fail to notice some negative second-order effects, and suddenly your first-order selfish choice looks like a charity. Societies and markets are dynamic systems, so predicting outcomes is less like predicting path of a rocket from Newton's laws, and more like predicting the weather.
The previous owners were using it as a single family home (according to Wikipedia). Make of that what you will. It's definitely a bigger 'waste' of resources than using it for conferences.
No-one cares about the waste of resources though. A castle is a symbol of power. It's the combination of lots of big, bold ideas, lots of public speaking, giving money out, THEN buying a castle. People begin to worry that these people want to rule them.
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