It does make me laugh to hear people worrying about an 18mm toe. Balls haven't got any harder, and yet bats from years back had slim toes (15mm in some cases) and didn't suffer particularly. As long as the toe is shaped properly, it's really not something to worry about overly.
Also don't forget the mallets getting harder making knocking in more tricky.
You know what they say about small toes....
Here are a few more pics xp80 2000 vs Velocity XL2000Predator 1300
Here are a few more pics xp80 2000 vs Velocity XL2000
Does this Velocity XL 2000 have a higher spine than the xp80? Where are you sourcing this Velocity from?