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I notice alot of the players that i consider to be somewhat bad pat pretty early when out of position in heads up pots with smooth draws, and ive always thought of this to be not ideal. Say the co or button raises, and villain 3bets a premium 4 card 7-draw, catches a 9 on the first draw and basically always keep it against my 2/3-card draw. Is this correct, marginally bad or just not good?

First, I think there's a reasonable amount of difference between whether hero drew 2 or 3. Generally, I think patting a 9 on the flop against a villain drawing 3 is fine because even if villain knows your doing this, he's just not going to be able to make enough hands to put a ton of pressure you.

Otherwise, I'd say patting your 9s is fine in BB's shoes if you think your opponent is going to play straight forward against you postdraw. If CO/Btn will fold a lot early vs a pat hand, patting can be good too. If CO/Btn likes to make moves/be aggressive, I think you should lean towards breaking a marg pat hand early with a clean draw underneath.

its actually not a huge mistake unless you're opponents are able to adapt/exploit and even then its not that bad. ftr, bad players do this and so do the really good players, its the in between that dont

Okay thats fine. But if i ever semibluff the turn with a wheeldraw/smooth 8draw and you ever break/always pay off the river, then it becomes a huge mistake?

maybe just a small mistake tbh. its pretty difficult to quantify.

i think this problem is similar to the T 1:1 oop prob where for all u care villain has 3 draws to go now and u should base ur pat decision on this?
ofc u only have 2 draws now and its more difficult to make a better hand than u already have

u ca't troutulate this exact situation but with 3 draws to go 23579 is 66% favorite over a 2cd
and 2357 is also 65% fav over a 2cd (245)

so
+1) if u pat villain can forfeit his eq if he folds ui ott
-1) u have io with not patting

being played at is possible with both patting and not patting cause u may make the 9 ott and get raised and then break it

ill say its a wash/indifferent if villain draws 2

In general terms (it's since Black Friday that I don't play 2-7):
- J-pat
small favorite against 1 Op drawing 2 in 2nd draw
favorite against 1 Op drawing 1 in last draw

- 9-pat
small favorite against 2 Ops drawing 2 in 2nd draw
favorite against 2 Ops drawing 1 in last draw

To Pat a J against a competent player, you'd want position to maintain the possibility to break it down if he stays Pat after betting on 3rd.

The play you're describing is pretty standard and never a mistake in HU when you draw at least 1 in 3nd and more than 1 in 2nd.