There is something else that could be done to reduce the size of the mod somewhat.
In nearly every vanilla (and probably some custom Disco) .mat file exists a few 'stock' textures for engines, intakes and generally misc. textures used on many ships. (e.g. engine_grill01, equip_gen, metal03, weaponplate2) If all of these 'stock' textures used by multiple faction's ships were removed from the individual mat files and placed into a single stock .mat file it could reduce the size of the mod quite a bit.
I've always wanted to do it, but it's quite a big task that would take a lot of time.