Tough question.
I've seen that happen a few times here and I remained uninvolved in it, except when I felt it was undeserved, in which case i approached the moderator privately to discuss it.
That, to me, sounds about like what I'd be doing as ombudsman, only on the mod board instead of PMs. That friend could now ask me to speak out for them, and I'd have the freedom to do so.
As for the second part of your question - I think I spend too much time here, I'm about as accessible as it gets. I work LONG hours and usually have EF somewhere in the background of my computer. The time I'd be asked to put into this would very unlikely exceed the amount of time i'm already around.