Ryan, are these concepts generally understood and taught in physics?
You probably wouldn't find a physics or engineering text which uses the phrase "path of least resistance". Motion according to F=ma is covered extensively in first semester physics, as well as in the pre-engineering course(s) Statics and Dynamics, where things either sit still or move according to some relationship, respectively. Resistance is generally an electricity concept, covered and quantified there.
People often mention water, but fluids flow along gradients, which are just directions with the least pressure, and the effect is on an instantaneous basis. For example, you might have some water at the top of a hill that could, hypothetically, flow upward to the left for 1 foot and then freefall through space for 50 feet downward, or alternatively flow down a craggy ravine to the right with lots of rocks and plants for 50 feet (with more net resistance). It doesn't calculate the total net resistance in advance and choose to go left. Resistance shows up again in hydraulics, where friction forces, etc, can slow the flow of fluids in pipes and channels.
To suggest that the WTC towers should have fallen over sideways, or some such thing, would imply that they KNEW IN ADVANCE OF FALLING which way had "less resistance". Does that make sense to anyone but a truther?
