Your friends they are jealous, misinformed, or just immature. That is a great bike. I wouldn’t even deal with judgmental people like that you are better off without them.
Try not to care too much what your 16yr old friends say (they’re clueless let’s be honest). You should show them the videos of Cam McCaul with his built up fuel and see if they still think it’s a shitty bike.
Definitely sounds like your ‘pals’ are being dicks. Hopefully it’s just jealous banter and not anything else. A guy I ride with has just got his and it’s a properly sorted bike with a solid spec. Ignore them and get riding and enjoying what you’ve got. I’d be interested to know what they ride if they say yours is a bad bike?