Greg responds...

1. They were invited. It's interesting to me that you ask why they weren't invited, rather than asking why didn't they attend. That choice feels vaguely hostile to me. But maybe I'm reading into it. Out of Universe, the original plan was for them to attend. But it was decided that for production purposes, we just couldn't handle adding two more characters to an already crowded field.

2. I don't know how close they ever were with Roy. But, yes, they're still good friends with Virgil and Ed, and Jaime and Traci and Bart, as well.

3. No spoilers.