The lack of new plants and zombies was already told to us in the recent blogs - the devs are focusing their resources on a bigger update to improve gameplay.
I have never heard of players leaving communities just so that they can squeeze out more hearts from gifting. I'm not saying that it doesn't happen, but it's not the normal intended player behaviour.
This happens every day in our community; because resources are so scarce, acts of kindness are the only way to obtain a large number of seeds on a daily basis.
