It's really different stroked for different folks.

I have a friend I occasionally ride with. He doesn't like rides longer than 30 kilometres round trip.

I have another friend who when he rides will stop quite often to take images of anything that's caught his fancy.

I've ridden with another friend who also loves to go on two-weeks long tours on logging/mining roads where we can camp anywhere anytime. We've also done a number of overnight rides. Ride to some campground, camp for the night and then ride home the next day often on a different route that the outbound one.

It's also very discouraging for a newbie bicyclist to have a pretty wide gap open up between them and the person they're riding with. On hills where a newbie is struggling I'll often ride back to them, ride alongside (traffic permitting) and chat with them as they're climbing. It takes their mind off the climb and is more sociable. I ride with people for the company.

Cheers