"Tapping on an item guarantees you will get it now without having the message popup and tell you about llamas. Great. Finally."
Sorry, but this isn't true. I have suffered the failure to buy an item more than once since the update. The popup "Llamas must have messed up the bookkeeping" is alive and well.
The update did bring the ability to pick up free items from the Blue Message now sometimes found by cruising through other Cities, but that is a small advance compared to the ongoing suffering.
The game intentionally slows "free" progression after the first few days in order to psychologically manipulate the player into spending real money to advance. All the suggestions about how to improve the Trade Center are useless. It is working exactly as intended. What is required is a mindset change at EA so they will try to provide a great game that we would be willing to pay for instead of acting like bullies pinning us down on the playground until we give them our lunch money.