How to get the shortest file size on aliases? I realize a bit of why they are so big. Actually, they used to be small enough (around 2kb) and still magical about keeping the file link.

I can also see a few ways to "shorten" it, including one I've been using for a long time already, which is a simple service to create symlinks instead. There's an issue there:

Symlinks are not aliases


They break way too easily. An alias can keep linked to the origin most of the times.
Some software will treat symlinks differently from Aliases. Here, each one have their use, and eventually I'll use one or another.
Not as easy to create as aliases -> use CMD + ALT while dragging n' dropping files!


So, forget symlinks for this question, please!

As for the actual way to shorten it (described on the already linked apple forums) they are way unpractical. First you need to install Shrink Alias with Shortcuts (because the first is unsupported in newer OS X's and the second is a hack to make it available as a Service) and Delete Data Fork workflow. Then manually apply both to each alias. Eventhough you can do it by selecting all files in Finder, again, you still have to do it for each time you create aliases and it's many hacks to keep updated on the next OS'es.

Isn't there a simple Service Workflow, Automator or AppleScript which could do  all that automatically whenever I create a new alias, maybe by hooking up on the Alias Manager?

I doubt there is a secret to help with any of this...

How about some other new idea about all this?
In High Sierra, the following works: just select the alias and run Finder command "Show Original" (command-R).  This trims the alias size down to a minimum.  This brought an alias that was previously 24 Mb down to 8 Kb.