Can you test ride one of your friends bikes with the smaller ring? That way you don't have to decide blindly.

FWIW, I've got a 32x10-52 setup, pretty common. For the long uphill grind, I never have an issue. There are some occasions when I want to go up some steep rock ramp or other weird obstacles and run out of power.

The tricky part is, do I need a smaller chainring, or do I actually need a bigger one and stronger legs? At those low gears, I'm barely moving. It's slow enough that I end up doing track stands on obstacles and small bumps completely stop my progress and I tip over. An even lower gear would slow me down even more, it gets closer to the minimum allowed by physics, to stay moving.

If I'm on a steep non technical trail just grinding, I can go 3-4mph which is plenty. If you want a lower gear for that, do it. You almost certainly won't notice the loss on the high gears.