I could see it online, yeah. If you use a friendly tone in person it wouldn’t be a problem.

“Thank you friend” is impolite? Maybe it’s informal, but I think that’s a great solution to the problem. I can’t imagine anyone having a problem with that except maybe an aggro asshole.

Having experienced both, I think it’s more accurate to say having bad relationships.

I seem to remember the official explanation being that they’re not that far apart, but that the holodeck can use perspective tricks to seamlessly make them seem that far apart. You could run away from someone in one direction and never hit the wall while things shrink and enlarge to make you seem far away from your companions.