It's definitely taking me longer to collect than before, and I get about 1/4-1/3 of my friends each time. I do vandalize instead when I can, but it seems that's more rarely available now so mostly I just leave and check back later. My heart yield is also very low. One or no hearts is the most common. Visited about 15 friends earlier and got about 10 hearts. As far as collecting cards in my town, I'm on at least every 2-3 hours and I'm certainly not awash in hearts. I'm getting enough to get through the v-day quests, but I'm only on Howard's Flowers while a couple of my neighbors long since finished and have TONS of heart trees and rose bushes (100+)! I have no idea how they're doing it. All my neighbors log in daily or close to it, so I'm not sure if I'm not clearing cards fast enough or if they're unable to visit often, or if there aren't cards available when they do.
I did read the breakdown of how cards and hearts work. What I'm not sure about is the mechanics of clearing cards, because I've had two cards on one character a few times now which implies I don't need to clear every card for them to regenerate.
Anyhow, for me the dynamic has changed to "frustrating"! I want to visit everyone and spread the love, but I often don't have time to spent 2+ hours visiting friends each day. And though I'm altruistic about it, a better ROI heart-wise would be nice...
