I believe the solution is that there is a security setting that is off by default that some of your friends may have enabled. That security setting is allowing third party programs (i.e. not official facebook app) to access your basic user info. The people hub etc is considered a third party program, so if your friend has this enabled you will not be able to pull their info.
So, my guess is these people have enabled this setting and thus it is preventing us from getting their updates. Have them change it, use the official FB app, or oh well for them.