I think the biggest confusion is that people think the file size grows linearly. Which is not the case. The biggest thing that increases the file size is discovering new areas. That is from tests in this very thread. Discovering all areas seems to bring people to around 5MBs. Crafting normally, doing 100% side quests, etc.. appears to add another 2MBs. People are freaking out because they don't understand that the game normally uses 5MBs just for the areas. That doesn't mean you will grow past the 8MB limit playing normally. Most people with this issue have done an exorbitant amount of crafting.
No excuses for CDPR because there should absolutely be a failsafe. But I must stress that normally playing the game doesn't appear to breach the 8MB threshold.
You're absolutely right. Most people, even those who fully 100% the game and clear all content, will not run into this bug. I've seen your numbers before, so let's just assume they are accurate. Your save file is sitting at 7MBs total. Loads are a bit slower, but nothing game breaking going on. No big deal, there's nothing left for you to do in the game. Main missions and side content are all cleared, and I doubt driving around literally doing nothing would significantly add to your file size, if you felt the need to save at all. You should be good. For now.
Let's assume every player finishes the game this way. All of us have finished the current content and are perfectly happy with where we left our characters, ready to face the
multiple content expansions we were promised in the future. Do you see the potential problem now? I see a lot of back and forth in this thread about not exploiting the crafting mechanics and just playing the game normally, but many have also confirmed that 100% playthroughs end with a save file around 7MBs. This leaves little room for the save to grow with future content, which we were promised. I've seen first hand how discovering an area of the map can bloat the save file. Do I think it's coming soon? Of course not, they have plenty of fires to put out first, but if it isn't addressed at all, "legit" players will run into this same problem a few months from now.
Again, I completely agree with your post, I'm just using it as a jumping off point. We need to turn our focus from how this effects the game now to how it could impact the game in the future. There's very little room for any new areas or questlines if this new content impacts our save file in a similar way. CDPR has even talked about supporting the modding community, so pile fan made content on top of that and we are looking at a problem that the fast majority of players will face if they do anything outside rushing the main story.
