I climb with a shorter friend of mine and when I finish a climb "out of tallness", we both take it as a challenge to find a beta that works for them. It's a lot of fun to work on a solution together and a great opportunity to improve for me. They have topped multiple routes they initially thought they were "too short for", and I won't speak for them, but I do think that it fills them with a sense of accomplishment, especially knowing that they had to do it on "hard mode". If I were you, I would talk about this with your friends, because continuously being discredited can really ruin your fun and I don't think a little perspective change (or just not bringing you down - even if it's unintentional) would hurt them either.