I think the alienation and superficiality that is characteristic of friendship as contrasted with family (by which most people would include one's spouse or SO) in our society undoubtedly has its roots in the social relations of production of capitalism on a large scale. That observation seems rather banal to me, but then I tend to see every sociological issue through my Marxian prism...

Like you I'm also frustrated with the lack of commitment people have to their friends, and with how society structures our senses of loyalty and love to fit neatly into these suburban plats accessible only by car, mail and phone. Friends can occupy the level of buyers or sellers in such a society, and the phenomenon of "working your contacts" for gain becomes an expectation rather than an offense to the friendship relation. So yeah you're right, one can always refuse to buy or sell, and nothing apparently follows. There's always another seller/buyer out there with a better product. Ugh.

I see many needy trans-people who are cut off from family, and they seem to me to suffer quite a lot from the modern devaluation of friendship and community. If you don't structure your love-relations as society requires, then you will have none. I fear it, I know.