because it literally is not the primary route between these locations. whether you want to go by usage or by physical characteristics, orchard road is the main route by which folks get north and south.

same goes for the stretch of US 34 you upgraded. east of Orchard to the river, it's a two lane road with hardly any shoulder, and only access to a handful of businesses and  residential driveways; locals largely do not use it as a primary route, they use 71.

and lastly, and most importantly: there was actually local consensus on this. you drop out of nowhere to impose your statewide defaults, which you stated elsewhere could change based on local conditions, and i'm telling you there are local conditions that local mappers have agreed upon.