There is not a greater stigma for non-drinkers unless you're hanging out with alcoholics. People whose opinions you should care about don't care either way as long as you're a kind person.
A real world example would be better. School projects are always filled with arbitrary requirements since you are writing for an audience of one. Maybe the teacher required them implementation to be a class and that you had to memoize the count. In that case the replacement is not the right implementation.
There is not a greater stigma for non-drinkers unless you're hanging out with alcoholics. People whose opinions you should care about don't care either way as long as you're a kind person.