Workaround: how to type that something should scale 0.5mm smaller when 1Dscale?

Or try SolidPtOn, window select the points at one end and drag them in the direction you want; once they’ve started moving, type in 0.5 & hit enter. That will constrain their movement.

Or try Pascal’s ScaleByAdd script from here:

As always, lots of different ways to do the same thing in Rhino.