I don't like Squeak Through, I think it breaks immersion or even becomes overpowered with how much it overzealously crops bounding boxes. But I just checked and there is a brand new Squeak Through 2 mod which boasts broad customizability while also keeping the 'squeak_behavior = false' support. Now that I am looking at it, I think I might actually use it. But at the very least its options make it much easier to disable unwanted features which I think is important for a proper QOL mod.

There is a fine line between QOL and cheating, and it's defined by whether or not the problems you're trying to remove are supposed to be there.

I'll take a look at Squeak Through 2, but I don't want to get too deep into Factorio modding without a good reason.

I understand your concern, and I've always considered Squeak Through very much a QoL (Quality of Life) mod. You could easily just remove one pipe, run through, and then replace it, but I see your point. I think this mod makes life easier and removes, in my eyes, the only annoying problem without much gameplay impact. I actually consider Even Distribution closer to cheating, honestly. I can imagine it being different in some mods, though.

I want to keep it in; you have to draw the line somewhere, and for me, Squeak Through is easily within acceptable bounds. If many more people share your view, I will downgrade it to an optional mod. If it doesn't suit you, just disable it manually.

I've been using Squeak Through 2 for a while now and I have to say I like it. Not only does it have several options to customize your experience, it also defaults to significantly less zealous bounding box reductions. You can still walk between solar panels but you're no longer essentially walking ON the panels, for example.