Here's a tip: bookmark https://www.facebook.com/?sk=h_chr and you will always see the most recent feed. I've been using this for months now and it hasn't unset the most recent setting yet.
Is it just me or has the recent feed recently started showing things from friends of friends that my friends like and comment when it didn't before? Or is my memory faulty?
Yes, my feed has been like that for the past 2 months. It's one of the reasons I haven't logged in for 20 days now. I still use the Messenger app, tho.
Yes, I have had this feeling too. So many likes about people I've never heard of. Seriously degrades the quality.
But what about the app?
Sadly I haven't figured out how to do this in the app yet :(
I've switched to using the mobile web version. I personally find it much more responsive, and Facebook can't bug me with notifications anymore ;)
It's accessible from the Android app as a list (called "Most Recent"), from the same menu where you can access your timeline or the app settings.