I do believe that David has made friends. He's just not there to kick back and have a holiday and his personality won't appeal to everyone and he knows that. He's not some smooth talker who will always say the right thing - he can be awkward and non politically correct and makes his calls based on his own thoughts, not because everyone else may feel the same way and that's what I like about him.
I don't necessarily think that friends will win you BB but you do need to show the voting public exactly who you are and by nature, that's not always going to be perfect. Connect with enough people and you will get there. We'll see though, everyone has different aspects of people that they like or don't like.
We're not referring to the outside though. We're referring to their friendship within the house, and in that context at least it seems to be genuine and working for them. All of them have been thrown into a house with people they wouldn't normally associate with on the outside...that's the whole point of the show really.
As for Ryan "sucking up" to the others after his friends were evicted, as
@tanique already pointed out, we see that every single year as people are evicted. Those left are forced to spend time with others they hadn't previously and they often they develop friendships with new HMs. It's exactly the same thing that happened to Tahan last year after all her friends were evicted. She formed a friendship in the house with people like Drew who had originally called her vile and Tim whom she didn't originally get along with.
David may not come away with a real bestie, but has made some friends in the house, and the only real 'enemy' atm is Skye.
David said in the DR when he was feeling on the outer, that he really appreciates his real life friends and they get him, and that's what really matters in the long run.
I haven't watched Lawson,Cat or Aisha's interviews yet but Lawson and Cat weren't mad at him for choosing Cat to come visit the house, to remind viewers of Clawson, and last week Aisha said to the girls she loved David (much to skye's disgust hehe)
A lot of the evictees have shown support for David on SM, either wanting him to stay in the house or he's their top 2-3 to win.
None of the evictees have come out and said David was their bestie but none have thrown him under the bus either...even Lisa has shown support, and said they came closer after their spa fight...
Most of the evictees have had something bad to say about Skye's behaviour in the house...apart from Jason(and maybe Dion?)
David must be doing something right in his social game, since the time he received those 18 points
the following week he received NO points
Skye put him up with her HOH power
Priya put him up with her HOH power
BB put everyone up for eviction
and this week he isn't up for evictions
I'm still giving Ryan the benefit of the doubt with his friendship with David, and since Sam left, I don't think we've heard a bad word from him about David, and he's never nominated him... and he did comfort David that time when Sandra was crying after him telling her to not spend so much time the cleaning the house, when she could be getting to know the HM's.
I still remember Ryan's nosing picking and armpit rubbing in the DR though eek lol and I wonder how much of a fan of BB he really is..he applied for The Block and was poached by BB, although I'm sure he would've had to do some parts of the audition process?