You can choose a path your friends don’t get. They don’t have to understand it for it to be right for you.

Their not understanding is a fact about their information, not about your decision. Friends judge from outside, with the part of the picture you described and none of what you have noticed, so a route that looks odd to them can be perfectly sound from where you stand. Agreement is pleasant and it is not evidence. You would not want a life chosen by committee either.

Even so, explain it once, properly, to somebody who will push back a little, because that is how you find out whether it holds. If it survives the explaining, stop requiring everyone to approve. Keep the friends and drop the referendum.