I think people are more concerned that because IB is just better for directs, when it shouldn't be, people are going to have no choice but to go with it in most situations because of the hitbox. Whereas it shouldn't be the hitbox size that determines what to pick, but the behavior of the rollers. And now that this is becoming common knowledge, IB is just going to become the definitive pick rather than something most people use because it feels better but they don't exactly know why they use it.
Veering off into discussion about base Valve balance and if it's legitimate is irrelevant in this discussion. The fact is Valve did add a hidden stat to the IB which makes no sense for it to be different and on its own, isn't an interesting part of the unlock, and isn't intended. The discussion is purely about the existence of a difference, not if the base value is good or bad. There unequivocally should not be a difference in hitbox size for stock and IB. The base value can be up for debate.
BakugoI have created a sourcemod plugin to fix this issue:
https://b4k.co/share/sourcemod/scripting/bak_pipe_hitbox_fix.sp
This plugin also allows setting any custom hitbox size, so if you guys come to the conclusion that demo's primary shouldn't be nerfed you can set the higher IB size for all GLs as well.
So, this discussion about demoman buffs or nerfs is kinda irrelevant. Pick which one you want, and make the rest of the GLs on the same level as the IB, or the IB the same level as the rest of the GLs.