Data-driven design vs. Natural behaviour

Background

The current client I am working with is in the vacation property space. Our naming terminology is similar to general e-commerce .

We have currently taken a different approach on our homepage and landing pages when users click on the product/property cards.

Instead of the typical behaviour of linking to the product/property details page, we actually send them to a search results page with their chosen property being pinned to the top ahead of other relevant properties. Its only when you click on that card, you finally get to the details page.

This decision has come from knowing that the user goes through an average of 12 product/properties before conversion. So directing them here, although not a natural route, should give the user easier access to achieve that 12+ PDP quota.

Question

Personally I am looking for greater validation for creating a less natural user journey but as the design decision is data driven, can this be considered an exception to the rule? Or do we stay more true to the natural expectation from the user? What wins in this instance?

Attached is a summary of the two flows, hope it makes sense