For making lots of friends and interacting, for me the biggest period was when I -wasnt-
in any FC, but rather had a social linkshell instead. The 4 person party for regular content makes it a tad harder to inclide more than a couple friends, or FC mates. Anyway for making friends I personally feel like not being in a FC made it a lot easier because I abtually had to utilize things like PF etc while when in a FC I find myself only interacting with a small circle of friends no matter how big the FC is