As someone who was alive in the 80s and heard people say precisely those things, i'll just go ahead and verify that people held precisely the view that you claim nobody held.
Pippen was not a fairly limited offensive player, that's laughable. He was not nearly as good as Jordan, that is undeniable, but your claim is absurd. Pippen spent the entirety of the peak of his career playing alongside Jordan so we'll never have a decent comparison, but in the years that Jordan was not with the Bulls, Pippen was clearly their #1 scoring option and he was quite good at it. I agree with your assertion about MJ's view of Pippen over Bird and about his talent assessment skills though.