Do supportive friends end up hurting your product roadmap?

Testing with friends and fellow developers is a massive trap.

They always tell you the app looks great and the idea is solid because they want to support you not because they actually face the problem you're solving.

We built an entire feature based on positive feedback from a non-target audience, and when we launched publicly real users didn't care about it at all. It took months to pivot back.

How do you stop yourself from listening to polite feedback instead of real market signals?