You are right. The rules in Gold Token do not limit the placing of the barricade. What I am talking about is found in the rules for the original board game, from 1960:

The barricades
Barricades are blocking stones that cannot be jumped. In order to clear them out of the
way, a pawn must land with an exact roll of die on a barricade. The player in turn takes
the barricade and places it on any other space on the board – with the exception of the
first row of spaces. Repositioned barricades can be placed on black spaces then.

I am not recommending this be changed on Gold Token, although, I was frustrated the first time I got blocked on the first row.