That is a hack, not a fix.
Using a 1x1 sprite is valid to factorio and mods should be able to handle it.
You can't demand every mod using 32x32 icons all the time.
instead you have to deal with different icon sizes properly by supporting this:
icons = {
{ icon = "icon1.png", icon_size = 24, tint = {r=1, g=1, b=1, a=0.85} }
{ icon = "icon2.png", icon_size = 32, tint = {r=1, g=1, b=1, a=0.85} }
{ icon = "icon3.png", icon_size = 1, tint = {r=1, g=1, b=1, a=0.85} }
}
icon_size = nil -- always set nil when using layered icons of different size