Your gut is right on this one. For a plain Windows drive swap, Macrium Reflect free is plenty and it walks you through the resize step so the extra space actually gets used. Clonezilla does the job but you fight with it, the menus feel like they were built for someone who grew up on DOS, and one wrong pick wipes the wrong disk. Ray probably just learned on it years ago and never bothered trying anything newer, which happens a lot in this field. Keep using what works for you, there's no prize for picking the harder tool.

Ha! I read a thread on a sparky forum about this exact thing, guy said getting chewed out by a client early in his career made him way better at layout. Tbh sometimes the jerks do us a favor even if it stings in the moment. That 6 inch service loop trick is smart, might have to steal that.