lui ont trouvé un intérêt

18:49 Feb 25, 2019 

to close and grade the question, and post a Glossary entry (which doesn't have to replicate any of the answers provided)

18:21 Feb 25, 2019 

The translation was delivered late on Friday night and I am now on holiday. Interesting note the considerable range of interpretations for what appears a simple phrase.

15:03 Feb 25, 2019 

Re your comment (in response to my comment on your proposed translation): I think you may be misreading my proposed translation. "Worthwhile" isn't used to translate "s'intéresser à"; it's a translation of "lui ont trouvé un intérêt." And you will find it on Linguee, among other places.

15:17 Feb 22, 2019 

s'intéresser à doesn't translate as "to attract somebody's attention". Their [EDIT] attENtion wasn't merely attracted. The text suggests on the contrary that they actually took an active interest in the place. Unless of course one doesn't care for nuances.

15:02 Feb 22, 2019 

unless you don't care for nuances ...

1 - se sont intéressés à => their attention was attracted to .../ they wanted to take a look at ..
2- lui ont trouvé un intérêt => found it interesting / worth taking a closer look at / examining in more details

as opposed to:

1. something draws your attention, so you want to look at it.
2. once you've had a quick look at it, you decide you don't want to waste any more time on it.

Can't see anything wrong with author's logic.

14:52 Feb 22, 2019 

... in English

what springs to mind is "significance/importance./relevance/... meaningful/of value ...," which seem more relevant here.

In fact, I think that your "assigned importance to it" is pretty close to the meaning I have in mind. I was thinking of st like "attached importance to it" or "considered/thought it relevant"

12:57 Feb 22, 2019 

What about something like "found it worth their while"?

Just a suggestion. ")

12:51 Feb 22, 2019 

As usual our challenge is not translating the words themselves but working around the author's logic.

12:38 Feb 22, 2019 

You're not failing to grasp anything. It's just a repetition from yet another so-called author who's forgotten the meaning, or possibly the very existence, of the word "concision". It could have been justified (but repeating the word should have been avoided anyway) if l'intérêt had been defined/described/qualified/explained (intérêt pour/du fait de...), but not if it's left dangling at the end of the sentence. Not for me to comment on your suggested translation, but the source sentence could very well do without et lui ont trouvé un intérêt. Good luck with the translation!