No, they have got used to being nannied. And they should NEVER "tweak the circuit a little wider"' they should continue in the normal circuit pattern, giving way to any traffic on final which has landing clearance by going around as necessary .
IFR traffic in VMC - even in Class D CTRs - is only entitled to be given traffic avoidance information about VFR traffic on request. They do not have any inherent 'priority' over such traffic, they just assume that they do - and ATC are often complicit in giving them this perception!
Too often do some ATCOs attempt to provide IFR separation standards in VMC in Class D airspace. IFR separation is only provided from other IFR traffic in Class D; pushing VFR traffic around to make life easy for the IFR inbound is unreasonable. However, 'traffic information' is available for VFR traffic, so if ATC advise that some airliner is inbound, then any VFR traffic should simply be told the postion of the inbound traffic ("CheapAir 737 IFR inbound at 10 miles") and arrange their own separation accordingly. And that doesn't mean some ATCO ordering orbits, extensions downwind or other non-standard aviation practices.