Does anybody know the game mechanics behind the elven outpost? So far I can only conclude:

Its a gem trap. Replacing a bad request for 5 gems most of the time gets you a bad request in return. I think it is much cheaper in the end buying a Alicorn straight away instead plunging your gems in a black hole.
The amount of certain requests are straight forward insane. Requesting 50 red petals, 55 sap and so on doesn't make any sense to me
Gold runes are a kind of a myth. Dont got one yet. Looks completely random to me, so it doesn?t matter how though the deliveries are. If a delivery is very demanding the chance you are getting 8 bronze runes is very big.

So how can I handle the elven outpost the best I can, cause atm this is really getting on my nerves. How do you handle this in the best manner without wanting to delete the game out of frustration?