Unless all of your friends are in the same camp as you, have fun playing not playing with them.

You won't play everything with your friends, but you probably don't have a 100% overlap in interest in which games you play anyway. Plus, a friendly suggestion goes a long way. "Hey, want to play Quake now that it just got remastered?" or "I just found this game X, and it's on sale. It's kind of like Y but with Z. Want to check it out with me?" And yes, I knew you were being hyperbolic, but I think you were serious when you were saying you were denying yourself some pleasure rather than sticking to some principle. And the value of that principle is going to vary from person to person, so I also agree with you on the "buckling", but there's just so much to play out there that one criterion is unlikely to be a deal-breaker given the breadth of games available.