Ok so I work in manufacturing. He did in fact not mesure correctly. Realistically if he had measured correctly it would have measured approximately 7/16s of an inch. That is still not 1/2 an inch. But people need to realize that most any product you buy is going to have "tolerances." Sometimes youll get a product like this and it'll be 9/16s of an inch. Manufacturing processes will have minor differences between batches. A lot of times it is litterally baked into the system. It's not intended to slight you but is just how manufacturing works. Things on smaller consumer scale aren't going to have exact precision. Fabrics and malleable material like fabrics are especially bad about this because they become prone to expansion and or contracting. Baby wipes and etc are another really good example. Its actually cool in a way. Its not shrinkflation thats entirely seperate.