Actually, hit registration is to do with the sever and anti cheat not the client. Block hitting is just bad anyway, constantly resetting your sprint. Pretty sure depth strider is the only 1.8 enchant and very little people have a problem with it. You can W/S tap on all versions of mine craft with sprint. The only reason for these is to reduce you in and increase your opponents, mineverse has had buggy knock back for a year or two now, changing to 1.7 spigot wouldn't change anything. Finally, that glitch you've meantioned is to do with the anti cheat NOT client. There is very little difference between 1.7 and 1.8. The "a lot of difference" people say is to do with sever connects and anti cheats rather than the actual client. You barely even notice a difference unless you're pvping someone on a different version of the game.
Would be nice if it was a 1.7 server with a plugin that allows you to use blocks/items from a higher version when on it. Many servers use this plugin, but I have no idea what the name of it is
The best hit detection out there is on 1.8, but to get the real PvP experience... 1.7 is your best bet. Most big HCF servers use a 1.8 custom Spigot.jar that is backwards compatible with 1.7. 1.7 does have better hit registration client side. I've ran several HCF servers and I know how it all works out.
THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT I'VE BEEN ASKING FOR BUT NO LET'S DOWNGRADE MV COMPLETELY SHALL WE AND MISS OUT ON AMAZING C O L O U R S