Possible to increase size of the rectangular UI hitboxes

I noticed this in the FAQ:

"How do I make UI elements have non-rectangular hitboxes?

Add a component that implements ICanvasRaycastFilter. In your implementation of IsRaycastLocationValid, reject all points that are 'outside' your custom hitbox shape. It's up to you how..."

But what I am currently interested in is simply increasing the size of the rectangular hitboxes without scaling up the sprites itself. Is this possible without having to implement your own methods?

 

This may not suit your needs but I added a button as a sibling to the thing whose hitbox I wanted to increase. Put the button over it and cranked the alpha on the image to 0. Then made the button whatever size I wanted the hitbox to be.

 

Just put the sprite as a child of the button. They're all just components like everything else: Duplicate the button, put one as a child of the other, delete the button component from the child and delete the graphic and renderer components from the parent, and make the parent bigger.

 

Alright, I'll take a look at it when I get home and see if I can resolve it.

 

Interestingly, It also works the other way - you can increase hit are of a button by placing a transparent Image as its child. This way you still has a button as "whole" object and it will report correct size for layout properties.

Not sure why it works this way though