The friends list right now is just flakey. It is having weird bugs and load issues (it tends to fail more during prime time). We are actively working on fixes for this, and we do know how important of a feature this is. The bad news is that no fixes for this are going out tomorrow. The good news is that because of how friends and presence work, it may be possible to release fixes for this without down time outside of our normal release schedule.
Just wanted to throw in my personal observations in regards to the friends list importance:
I hardly ever use it. If I want to check if someone's online, I typically do a profile search (Yes, I know that's the hard way).
New Residents, however - seem to use it heavily. In your first couple weeks in SL, often its your social network that keeps you here over the 'learning curve hump'.
With the friends list broken, this hampers the building of social networks during that critical first couple weeks - making more new people less likely to stick around. I've been hearing a lot of recent comments from new residents confused why their friends online is always empty.
In the interest of getting new residents to stay, I think this is a pretty important feature - even though I personally don't use it much.
EDIT: Ack... You said 'Do' not 'Don't'. Apparently I don't read well. Leaving my comments, but obviously we're on the same page
