Sad thing is OP raises some good points, just in a way that nobody would, nor should take seriously.
The issue with recruitment focuses not working at all seems to be affecting many players. Mods have acknowledged the issue but that's about it. It's obviously not something that everyone is experiencing, but in the interests of not being like the OP, I'd hope that mods and the rest of the community can imagine the frustration of players/customers who are unable to make use of a key game mechanic.
I know that the potential complexity of fixing this aspect of the game is more than I could imagine. However, in an information vacuum misinformation and frustration spreads. I would be really grateful if someone from SI/the mods could acknowledge that it's being worked on, there is no expected timeline for it to be fixed (if that is the case), and maybe provide an informed perspective that there are no known workarounds for now. This may negate a lot of frustration. It's not the end of the world for me, but any of these steps would have saved me some time and a bit of unnecessary frustration.
Hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend.