Well, the problem is, it is too time consuming. You can reciprocate from your tavern, but chances are you will find some peoples table full or your time is not up. Than, if you wanted to get everyone, you have to click on every chair in your friends list and even then you will find tables full or your timer not up. I have already deleted all my friends in 2 of my cities and after I try the attack bonus in another of my cities, if it does not make enough difference, I will more than likely be deleting them all from that city too. I think the tavern should be totally separate from friends whom you aid and have its own list and I think it should have a button like the aid one that is available only when it is time you can sit in the tavern and it should have something showing if there are any seats.
I really don't think this is the best feature ever for this game. It is too time consuming. It is best for people who spend hours on the game each day and it more time consuming than it needs to be if it had been thought out better. Surely these issues should have come up on beta and they could have tweaked it before bringing it here. At any rate, it has done a good job of making me sick of sitting so much and I have finally cut down to 4 cities that I actually play. I quit the guild in the 2 I quit the tavern in and so no longer do GE in those 2 cities either. Really, I think with all the changes, I should only have one city. At one point I got bored with only one city. Now, I'm weary of even the 4 I have left. You can't even say I don't want to do it without probably being deleted by your "friends". If I decide to keep playing a city I quit the tavern in, I will have to try to find friends who don't do the tavern to friend I guess.