I don't think that the skate is too small. When I stand up straight I can barely feel the end of the toebox (feathering). When in hockey stance with knees bent, I don't feel the end of the toebox at all. I wear size 9 - 9 1/2 shoes depending on the brand, and my skates are size 7 1/2. When I push my feet all the way up front (skates not laced), there is about a 1/4 of an inch of space by my ankle with thicker socks, probably 1/3 of an inch of space with thinner socks. Also I've heard that skates get up to 1/4 of a size bigger as they are broken in so I think getting an 8 will be out of the question. At my local hockey shop they sized me on this device that tells you exactly what your skate size should be for bauer and it actually said I was a 7... When I tried it on it was a little too tight, so i opted for half a size bigger. Size shouldn't be an issue.
My foot is pretty normal but I do however have a small bunion on the right side of my right foot below the pinky. Do you think that if I punch out that part of the boot maybe my foot will be able to shift/sit more to the right of the skate and will relieve the pressure of the side of my big toe pushing up against the toe cap? That's one idea that I had that might be causing the problem, since it would make sense that my foot might be sitting more to the left of the skate because of the bunion i have below my pinky toe. This is only a problem on my right foot though where my pinky bunion is slightly larger than the one on my left foot which I have 0 problems with the skates with. The part that rubs is on the left side of my big toe (right foot) its pushing against the side of the toebox.
I tried to be as detailed as possible, looking forward to some advise!