FWIW, I find many/most friction non-convergence issues are tied to lift-off, which typically occurs when you have vertical spans of piping.

If your supports are flexible, then when the pipe will push the supports out of the way, but maintain constant contact. Modeling in the structural steel will define what that flexibility is.

An alternative is to hold the piping down to prevent lift-off, but then you're potentially incurring higher loads, higher stresses, higher costs, etc, to circumlocute a convergence problem.