Will there be a noticeable offset if knitting rib from an unravelled edge? Background:

I'm in the process of knitting a jumper 'freehand', i.e. without a pattern.  I started from the bottom edge, knit in the round up to the armholes, split the knitting, continued to the top of the shoulders, and then did a three-needle bind off to join them.

Scenario:

The problem is that now I've got that far, I can clearly see a flaw in the earliest part of the jumper which wasn't apparent before.  For the first ball of yarn, I was knitting much more loosely, so the first few inches bell out a bit, sort of like a skirt.



The obvious solution is to unravel the offending portion and re-knit.  I have plenty of yarn, so wastage isn't an issue.  Normally I make socks or lace, so large pieces like this are less familiar to me and I did a bit of research to make sure I don't mess it up.  It seems I have two main options.

Option 1:
Cut the bottom piece off just above where it flares out, re-knit the entire bottom portion as a separate piece, and graft it back on.  In one sense this is the simplest since it involves repeating the steps I've already done, except for the grafting.  I really don't like grafting, and the yarn I'm using is very fluffy and hard to read the stitches, so I can see this being a real nightmare.

Option 2:
Again cut off the bottom piece, but just pick up the raw stitches and knit downwards until it's long enough.  I prefer this idea, but I know that this technique means that the new knitting will be offset by half a stitch.  The pattern is k2p2 rib, and I'm worried that there will be a visible line at the join.  I did try knitting a swatch to test it and I couldn't see a noticeable join, but like I said the yarn is very fluffy and it hides a lot of the detail so it's possible it would only be visible after I finished and it was hanging down, just like the original problem.

I've done a lot of searching for the answer to this, and it's possible that I'm missing some search terms which would help find it, but so far I've had no success.  The closest I've found can be seen in this article: How to undo your knitting - it does call out the problem of the offset stitches but doesn't specifically address how rib will behave in this situation.

(Sorry if this question is too long, I wanted to be sure it was clear enough.)
You're correct in that the fluffiness of the yarn and the colour of the jumper should hide the offset to some degree. Most people won't pick up on the change unless they are looking really closely (and really -- who does that?). 

TECHknitting did a series on grafting that addressed ways to disguise this particular dilemma. If you haven't already read it, you may find it helpful. Between these tricks and the yarn itself, no one will ever know :)