Ok, so recently, a good friend of mine told me that chunkloaders do not infact load chunks, but rather blocks around them. In other words, a 1x1 chunkloader loads 16x16 blocks around it, regardless of chunk borders. I am wondering if this is, for sure, true?
No chunkloaders always load the actual chunks. That is how the minecraft core works and can't be changed.
A chunkloader will load the chunk that it is placed in (F9 for chunk boundaries), Whether it be a Spot Loader, Quarry or some other form of loader, Minecraft is designed to render and load chunks that way.