Would you fix something like this or just leave it alone?

I’ve always been on the side of fixing it. If something was done poorly, it telegraph a lack of attention to detail that eventually catches up with you, even if it’s working fine right now. I had a similar issue a few years back where the previous owner routed a low-voltage speaker wire directly thru a seam in the composite decking, just to keep it from running across the surface. It looked awful, but it was supposedly fine. I noticed that the routing had compromised the integrity of the polymer seal around that specific piece, and while the wire wasn't actively failing, I was worried about moisture infiltration over time. My fix involved cutting out that damaged section and properly flashing the area with some exterior-grade silicone and re-trimming the board. It took a few hours of grinding and cutting, but it felt right to address the underlying sloppiness. It isn't about some dramatic collapse; it's about preventing a slow deterioration. When you see that level of compromise in one area, you have to assume it’s part of a larger pattern of quick fixes elsewhere. A little time now to replace that shoddy job is much cheaper than dealing with major water damage five years down the line.

Honestly, I tend to take the opposite side here. The original poster is worrying about some theoretical future failure, which is exhausting. When you’re talking about a standard outdoor hose run, that’s a heavy-duty application. Unless I see water pooling around the joint or I notice the joists themselves are showing signs of cupping or splitting, I think you are overthinking a minor cosmetic thing. It’s annoying, yes, but 'annoying' and 'catastrophically flawed' are two very diffrent categories.

I had a similar situation a few years back where some guy just shoved a PVC fitting through a hole he cut into a deck beam. It was messy, sure, but it was sealed with outdoor sealant that looked original. If it’s holding pressure and the surrounding wood isn't starting to warp from constant moisture exposure, I see it as a localized, solved problem. The extra time spent tearing into the framing just to get a cleaner look usally isn't worth the labor and the cost of new fasteners. I get that the previous reply mentioned that routing speaker wire through a seam is a big deal. That’s about aesthetics and long-term degradation of material, which is a fair point. But for a garden hose, the job is done and it doesn't risk structural integrity. If it still has solid decking around the area and the connections are tight, I'd let it be and just treat it like a feature of the house's history.

The wife angle is the part I'd fixate on, because my own reasoning on inherited work changed completly once I stopped framing it as respect versus standards. Here the actual question underneath is whether that notch sits near mid-span or near a bearing point, since a joist loses way more capacity when you cut it out at the ends where shear lives, and a middle-of-the-span notch is a much smaller deal for a low load like a hose line. I'd take a few minutes with a flashlight and check whether the wood around the cut is darkened, soft, or showing checks radiating from the notch corners. If it's clean and dry after a couple of winters, my experience says that builder knew more than the aesthetics let on, and your wife might be onto something.

I redid a hose connection somebody had roughed through the framing at my old place. Burned a whole Saturday on it, new fittings, proper blocking, looked sharp. Then the next spring my nice new work started weeping at the joint because I'd reused the original supply line, while the ugly hack it replaced had gone a decade without a drop. So my rule now is simple: turn it on full, watch it for ten minutes, poke the wood around it. Dry and solid means leave it alone. Your wife might have the right read on this one.

Update: the reply asking wheather the notch sits near mid-span or a bearing point got me outside with a flashlight. Mine's close to mid-span, so I'm less worried about the framing now. What I'm stuck on is the pipe itself, since the guy who redid his said his new work wept because he reused the old supply line. Mine's original too. Is there a way to eyeball whether an old outdoor line is worth keeping, or do you just replace it while you're in there?