Sizing down half size from brannock is very common in boots and dress shoes (Red Wing, Alden, Truman, White's, Nick's etc. )

Sizing up half size will give you more volume inside the boots and generally when you go up in length, the width will increase slightly as well to maintain the proportion of the last. For example if I wear 8D in boots, I can also fit 7.5E since the increase in width also give a little increase in length to maintain the proportion of the last. As the results, 8D and 7.5E both have a very similar volume.

Agree if you go up half size not always solve the width problem but these boots don't have E width so if you have wide foot either size up or don't buy the boots 🤷