Can I play my acct while waiting for restore?

Q u o t e:
Like, I assume it wouldn't hurt to make a new alt or something, but if I play the characters that got their stuff taken would that delay the restoration process?

Nope, you can play those characters as much as you'd like, though I would discourage making use of various character services, such as character transfers or faction moves, since those might cause complications.

Q u o t e:

Yes you can play while waiting for a restoration. But, if any characters were transferred off the server to another one during the compromise or any recustomizations or race changes were done, do not play those characters because they will be restored to the correct server, race, etc and anything done on the other server would be lost.

Ah, this is also important information to keep in mind.