Below is the answer that I got from GI (the lovely Yana). I asked about the visiting friends and gifting problems and about the changing time issue...my summary of the response below, is that things might get sorted in the next update (whenever that is), and, don't change the time on your device for fear of being penalised. I suppose that there is nothing new here.
To try to be fair and balanced, GI did get my iPad game fully restored within 3 weeks when it crashed so I do have to give them some credit for that.
Yana, Jul 29 17:48 (MSK):
Thank you for reporting this matter and providing me with the details requested!
Our engineers have been informed and are taking necessary measures to troubleshoot the problem. Anticipating your question on the time when the issue is completely resolved I would like to let you know that it is expected to be eliminated in the upcoming update.
As for your time cheating problem, we have it all scored on the server, therefore we cannot make a difference if you change the time (by hours) you will be declared a cheater by default.
We would like to bring to your attention the fact that changing system's clock time or date affects the game. In this case changing system date and/or time is cheating and it is not allowed to do while playing the game as you can get unfair advantage doing so.
In order to avoid such situations we strongly recommend you to close the game when you want to change system date/time on your device and open it again only after you complete all the changes.
To exit the game in the right manner, press the "Back" button on your device and confirm exit by pressing "Yes" if your device platform is Android.
If your device platform is IOS, press Home button on your device and the application will get folded. After that press Home button twice and the panel with launched applications will pop up. Press the game icon and hold it until the icon starts vibrating and press "-" sign to close the application. To hide the panel press Home button again.
Please, note the fact that any changes should be done using the Time Zone option. If you change date/time manually it will affect the game and you will receive a warning message.
Hope this information will be helpful for you.
Thank you for choosing our application!
Sincerely,
Yana Belousova
Your Support Team