Handbrake Cable Routing

Another thread here with same question a few weeks ago showed photos of guides, one looked bent toward the floor board

I saw the other post with the bent brackets. All my guides look similar and not bent; they hold the handbrake cable a certain distance from the floorboard. The exhaust pipe is not OEM, looks tucked in very close to the floorboard, and may be the culprit of the misalignment.

So which should be closer to the ground, the exhaust pipe or the handbrake cable?