SVG is another chapter in the long and storied history of engineers attempting to the question, "How hard can 2D graphics be?" And if you look at the industry standard answers (from PostScript to AutoLisp to Gerber to SVG) the answer is, "pretty damn hard."

I don't know if you can slim down vector graphics successfully. Every SVG renderer in existence slims down SVG to some degree. The ones that do it the most are used the least because they can't sufficiently express the intent of the designer.