This mod is incompatible with underground-pipe-pack and underwater-pipes; adding these two mods as optional (/hidden) dependency solves the issue.

(Modification of pipe.pipe.next_upgrade is carried over to new entities with different collision masks/replace groups; loading this mod after the others means the next_upgrade change doesn't cause issues)

Sounds like you have a fix for this. Would you be able to send me a Pull Request?
The source repository is linked in the info page.

Done.

Thanks for the PR. I have uploaded v1.0.1 with your patch. Please let me know if it works for you.

Since I just shared my local changes, it would have been a big surprise if it wouldn't have worked for me :)