Actually, you are right, and I know a few of them.
However, the savoir faire needed to even apply for a visa is a good sifter.
Look, the huge majority of these friends are hookers, sankies, or leeches looking for the golden ring. That is a fact.
When I wrote those "Rules" I was looking for common denominators that would tend to sift out a lot of the potential danger for a real relationship based on equality of the personages involved.
If you have a bank account, that speaks a lot to your vision of the future.
If you can write a check or handle a credit card, that, too, speaks a lot for a person.
If you meet with a person that is illiterate in his/her's own language, due to upbringing or lack of education, what kind of mind will you be talking to a few years down the line when the heat has diminished a bit? Therefore, a condition ("rule") that requires an educational level equal or superior to you own.
I have a dear friend in Santo Domingo that has a girlfriend that lives and "works" in the Canary islands, in the "hotel business"....from her looks she was striking in a barrio sort of way. But as soon as she opened her mouth, in Spanish, I knew she was a hooker on vacation....it was obvious to a native speaker.
Regarding a visa, that rule is probably the most flexible, since, believe it or not, there ARE Dominicans that qualify but have never really wanted to travel. Serious relationships can make visas happen. Again, it is a screening that eliminates most of the riff-raft....
HB, hardly an expert but a close observer of things...