Updates Should Carry Over
Nope, nothing is buried. But I think you have a good case- I would contact EA about it. I'm not sure if they can still give you old content but they might entice you with some donuts.
Forum Discussion
That's a major case of bad luck, but it unfortunately does sound like you have nobody to blame but yourself. I doubt they'll be able to give you items you missed. Not all games work the same. I started playing at the very beginning of the Stonecutters update, and I had no idea what was going on, because I was leveling up, getting new characters and buildings, and then had the Stonecutter stuff to deal with. So I went online and did a little research. Being new isn't really an excuse.
