I agree with this. I think -X lazy_imports=none is a possible way for pip to deal with part of the issues around installing wheels that overwrite code that pip might later import, but it’s not the only way, and it may not even be the best way. I do think that lazy imports have the potential to make it harder for pip to address this issue, but that’s not really relevant to the discussion here.
I don’t have a view on whether -X lazy_imports=none is problematic or not, but I don’t think pip should be used as a reason to claim that it needs to stay.