I prefer the stretched image, too, because that’s how it was in the real world and how I remember the games looking. Maybe I don’t understand correctly, but stretchig / not stretching the horizontal aspect is different from integer scaling, right?
I mean, I can choose to enable integer scaling in retroarch and still choose different aspect ratios that will stretch the screen.
For CRT shaders, it’s enough to have integer scaling on the y-axis, so the scanlines align correctly. Stretching the image along the x-axis has no negative effects to my knowledge.
For LCD shaders, I do think, it’s necessary to have integer scaling enabled, because if not, there are these weird colorization issues and it’s very distracting.
For PC-systems like DOS, I don’t actually know. I think they look infinitely better with your shaders, but I had discussions on Discord about this, and there are DOS-purists out there who won’t have any of that. They argue that the pixels get distorted with shaders like that. But I don’t know, man, I have eyes and DOS-games on a modern TV screen look rough without shaders.