FWIW, my latest innovation for weight saving is cutting my own phenolic control horns for ailerons & tailfeathers. Phenolic sheet from Aircraft Spruce, inexpensive & versatile. I used to favor the Rocket City style horns, or home-made versions thereof, using 6-32 threaded rod. Then on one plane that I had balanced without the horns installed, I re-balanced with the horns and was confronted with a very significant change in CG because of the little bits of steel in the tail. A gram of excess in the tail means 3 grams of counterbalance in the nose. Weight saving needs to focus on the tail for special emphasis.

But as you say, with gasser up front, you may need a little something in the tail to balance. So now you have to think about shortening the nose or moving the wing forward. This is where the ARF concept begins to run out of steam. It's a lot easier to do radical weight reduction on a kit than an ARF. I hate to be tedious, but I say again the 1.60FX looks to me like a good way out of all this.