How important are AT+FRS and AT+FTS?

So, today, after very long hours of debugging, we noticed that FRS and FTS on our modem does not react as it should. They just return OK immediately.  This has been confirmed by the manufacturer...  so on a scale of 1 to 10, in how much trouble are we?  From what I understand from the code, these are used to try and sync.  
One of the bugs where we noticed this was when we receive ERROR right after the first CONNECT during V17 transfer on the call initiator.  Basically NSF corrupts, and we then just bash out CRP while CSI and DSI are still coming in. CRP should only go out after DSI according to spec, but it seems like HylaFax just issue AT+FRS=x*3 before sending CRP. Any tips?

On an unrelated topic. We use HylaFax between two devices but they will not send data on high speed. We can see that the exchange does not happen over T.38 because the NSF data is still correct. We tried to send in both directions about 5 times. We then hooked up a Bother fax machine on the receiving side, sent a fax successfully. We subsequently reconnected the previously non-working system and everything kept on working. Does anyone have any experience on when or under what circumstances a service provider would engage the T.38 protocol? It seems like some black magic going on on the backend. Is it because of the calling tone, or the answering tone, the delay until NSF?

Kind regards 
Christo 

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