I don't necessarily see friction as a bad thing. I had to explain a lot at my last job that yeah, we did in fact do a whole bunch of work to smooth out a process. Why are we "only" seeing a 70% reduction in error rate per unit time? Well that's because we're using the process 3x as much now. We reduced errors by 10x which makes people more likely to use the process. Supply and demand.

A bit of friction on tasks that can result in massive problems can cause people to tap the brakes a bit.