It was never an option or plan for him to return to 141 this season. Bartlett was there. He has since outgrown even 149lbs, so why would he go down. Barr has not outgrown 184lbs.
Barr was noticeably smaller than every AA contender he stepped on the mat with this year, save for Salazar and Munoz. Neither of which were true 197lbers (Salazar weighing in at 194lbs Day 1 at B1Gs shows that).
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Sample size of one is all we have to go off of though, gents.
We can ignore it if we want, but it is a fact that there has only been one guy to go up in weight for them for a season then go down - in the Cael Sanderson era at Penn State.
There is also no reason to assume he would do worse. Not sure you gents are recalling last offseason. Aside for his loss to Sinclair at the Open, he beat everyone, including McEnelly via 6-2 and 4-1 decisions at two different tournaments (US Open, WTT), before avenging his loss to Sinclair in the Best of Three at the WTT.