One.
How many of you actually are good friends with those on your friend list?

I have 2 folks that i have met thru Chess.com that i consider 'real' friends -
they will actually put up with me -
meanwhile, i can not say if they would say that i am one of their 'real' friends.

EamonB1 did you really think your friends list is a public list of people who are people you know, liked, and vetted? Like some sort of a social resume?
No. If you thought yes, as your post seems to imply, you missed the point of the friends list here. The point is that it's more fun to play actual humans being more than once, as you get to know them a little. Consider if otherwise, why would you want chess.com? Why not just play a computer all day long? Did you know the "AI Turing test for chess" problem has been solved? In other words, computers can emulate human chess players, duplicating their styles, opening favorites, etc. So, if you want to play humans and not communicate or interact, you may as well use a computer instead of playing random people here.
No, the advantage of this site is not the computer bots. It's to be able interact with other humans. The friends list is a list of people you started to interact with. Ideally, you could challenge them to another game. Then you could chat and compare to prior games, other strategies, etc. That's assuming most of your games are not rated. (Talking or other human-human interactions during a rated game isn't too nice.)
Most of all, if playing with a friend, you can select a balanced game in which the computer takes away a few pieces from the better player. So this way you can play MC and win!
In real life, the idea I confess the friends system is a little broken. For example, my friend requests rarely seem to go through. And, if I had a good game with someone, the capability to submit a challenge is broken.
It should be fixed. To know more about the problem, let me explain it.
If you want to play a balanced game with a friend, they generally can't get the challenge invitation when not on the site. And when on the site, they are playing. They also cannot get the invite. So, to summarize, regardless if they are on the site or not, they cannot get the challenge.
You might think, no problem, I can send a challenge via direct message. Right? Nope. They have an anti-spam system that (according to an email I got from tech support who tried to explain why my account was muted), challenge links are considered spam by the internal spam detection bot.
Yeah.
So the biggest potential benefit of the friends list is destroyed.
Even so the friends list isn't supposed to be a list of people you consider your in-person friends. Statistically speaking your idea is totally insane because chess.com is global, so the odds of you interact with locals you know from your nearest 50-mi² (square miles) is about 500 friends*50/(196.9 million)=~zero unless you were already friends from a site like facebook and you invited them.
Eamon: asks simple question
Jason: writes Essay

Eamon: asks simple question
Jason: writes Essay
Yeah it's TLDR. I'm guilty as charged. But, in my defense, Eamon merely claimed to be asking a simple question; let's not forget that by his own admission he was really ranting against those who allegedly tried to appear popular by clicking on the "Add Friend" button. Besides, everything is more complex than you think. It's all sort of related. Even we are related to each other. Not all chickens are spherical.

100% of the people on my friends list are actual friends. Of course I only have one person on my friends list, so that's not really that hard.

Back when I was young and naïve I accepted all friend requests
Now, I decline them
I'm going to guess I'm one of the people who requested during your time of naivety?

When I was younger I used to accept all friend requests on this one website, and I ended up reaching the limit (500) and it took me an hour just to unfriend all of them. Not fun...

Sometimes when finishing a game, they ask you to be your friend...I think that is superficial...because we never talk...so...what is the point?

I know one friend IRL, another friend @KeSetoKaiba who I've played and chatted with quite a lot (super cool guy too), his personal friend @Gump_forest, and the rest of them... uhh... no clue who they are.

Sometimes when finishing a game, they ask you to be your friend...I think that is superficial...because we never talk...so...what is the point?
i usually talk on non-rated games lasting 10 or more minutes. sometimes just saying hello and gg, but other times long conversations about myriad things. people are at least as interesting as chess, especially smart people.
EamonB1 did you really think your friends list is a public list of people who are people you know, liked, and vetted? Like some sort of a social resume?
No. If you thought yes, as your post seems to imply, you missed the point of the friends list here. The point is that it's more fun to play actual humans being more than once, as you get to know them a little. Consider if otherwise, why would you want chess.com? Why not just play a computer all day long? Did you know the "AI Turing test for chess" problem has been solved? In other words, computers can emulate human chess players, duplicating their styles, opening favorites, etc. So, if you want to play humans and not communicate or interact, you may as well use a computer instead of playing random people here.
No, the advantage of this site is not the computer bots. It's to be able interact with other humans. The friends list is a list of people you started to interact with. Ideally, you could challenge them to another game. Then you could chat and compare to prior games, other strategies, etc. That's assuming most of your games are not rated. (Talking or other human-human interactions during a rated game isn't too nice.)
Most of all, if playing with a friend, you can select a balanced game in which the computer takes away a few pieces from the better player. So this way you can play MC and win!
In real life, the idea I confess the friends system is a little broken. For example, my friend requests rarely seem to go through. And, if I had a good game with someone, the capability to submit a challenge is broken.
It should be fixed. To know more about the problem, let me explain it.
If you want to play a balanced game with a friend, they generally can't get the challenge invitation when not on the site. And when on the site, they are playing. They also cannot get the invite. So, to summarize, regardless if they are on the site or not, they cannot get the challenge.
You might think, no problem, I can send a challenge via direct message. Right? Nope. They have an anti-spam system that (according to an email I got from tech support who tried to explain why my account was muted), challenge links are considered spam by the internal spam detection bot.
Yeah.
So the biggest potential benefit of the friends list is destroyed.
Even so the friends list isn't supposed to be a list of people you consider your in-person friends. Statistically speaking your idea is totally insane because chess.com is global, so the odds of you interact with locals you know from your nearest 50-mi² (square miles) is about 500 friends*50/(196.9 million)=~zero unless you were already friends from a site like facebook and you invited them.
You simply don't understand that this site is not only for playing chess... some people just use it like a social network...
I really dont care with who i play chess, but i am interested in that at the place of my friend somewhere on the other side of the globe started snowing first time in this year and he sent here some photos from it....