How important is...

Alignment is extremely important in romantic relationships. How important is alignment in relationships generally? We meet people everyday and some of these people enter spaces in our lives. Some people become friends, some become associates and some people become familiar strangers. Friends are people who are the family we choose for ourselves. Associates are people who for whatever reasons do not penetrate the friendship barrier and can still have a valuable place in our lives. Familiar strangers are people we see often & for whatever reason neither party makes a move to get to know the other person. Question: Is alignment really important in all relationships or should we allow our friends to be who they are? Should we truly take our friends as they are or do we pretend to accept them & secretly judge them? I believe we do the latter often.