First, I don't understand why you are getting hung up on the path of least resistance? Simple physics dictates if something weighing millions of pounds is several hundred feet in the air (thus possessing enormous potential energy) and starts moving, it's path is going to be straight down unless you have a massive horizontal force applied to it.
Second, the floors were structurally weakened. There is a huge chunk of the building missing prior to the fall, at the lower levels (which makes collapse far more likely), after hours of fire. It's the lateral failures that precipitated the vertical column failures. Take a straw, stand it on end, and push down in it. What happens? The straw bows out and the middle and then it breaks. Now take the straw and w/ one hand, don't let the middle of the straw move horizontally at all, and then push down on the top? What happens? It takes much more force to break the straw. While there are a number of factors including material and how the ends are affixed, as a general rule, the force a vertical column can withstand increases by a factor of 4 if you cut its length in half. In other words, this means if you start with a vertical beam than can support 100 tons restricted horizontally at the mid-point; and then remove the horizontal restrictions, it will only support 25 tons. That's why the loss of horizontal members on WTC 7 (and WTC 1 and 2) made the buildings fall.
Third, what is the basis for your belief about the "pace" of the fall? Just you looking at the video and thinking it's falling too fast?
Fourth, if it was a conspiracy (and it wasn't) wouldn't the conspirators destroy the building in a manner to direct the least, and not the most, attention to their conspiracy?