Solo agers who never had children face a somewhat different picture than those who did but live apart from them — often a longer-standing, more established chosen-family network, alongside some distinct social pressures.
The planning advantage
Many never had children spend years already building deliberate friendship networks, rather than assuming family would step in — often putting them ahead on the community-building front by the time solo aging planning becomes urgent.
The social pressure to address
Intrusive questions or assumptions from others ("who will take care of you?") can be wearing — a brief, prepared response ("I have a plan in place, thanks for asking") deflects this without inviting further discussion.
Your existing friendships are a legitimate, complete support network — they don't need to be a "substitute" for something else to be valid.