So, there’s this thing where, even with the throw delay PR, is that throwing knives at fences is still better at destroying fences than wirecutters are. and wirecutters are well… made to cute wires.
Not to mention its incredibly weird that throwing a knife at a fence twice destroys it.
I propose we change this, my idea is that;
Knives now have a channel ability to cut fences. identical to wirecutters currently
Knives now take more knives to destroy a fence
Wirecutters channel time reduced significantly.
I would try and make a PR myself but learning to set up a project from scratch is way harder than I anticipated
As for the knife being able to channel to cut fences like a wirecutter would, I think simply having it check for /obj/item/attachable/bayonet as well as its wirecutter check.
I recommend you stick with your first idea, giving knives a channel ability. Making marines unable to breach fences reasonably quickly without a specialized tool is not likely to be popular. That’s not to say we shouldn’t strive to enhance gameplay even if it’s not received well by the popular consensus, but… I’d pick your battles.