In SketchUp when you offset a set of edges, they are copied.
In consequence, if they stick to any other geometry, the connection is not changed.
In contrary, scale tool simply moves geometry, instead of copying it. So when you scale one face of a box, you get a truncated pyramid.
That’s how I’d see an alternative offset tool - “sticky offset”, which respects connection to neighbour geometry.
It would be very helpful with polygon modeling.
Maybe there’s a plugin for such operation?