Advice On Solutions to convert from using hard references

[BaseReality]

Hi,
While going over my project looking for potential performance issues I Found one where One of my actors was causing 800mb to be loaded on my main character due to one of the child actors its using has a ( actor map ) where there is a ton of hard refs being used.

I’m looking for a sensible alternatives to changing this and already had the thought of adding a soft ref actor map as you can see in the pic, I m also considering using Tags.
But I want to ask here before I proceed… As this is a new area for me.

[Supremative]

[BaseReality]

Just thought That if I was to get the tag of a actor & run that Thought a Map of Name = soft ref actor class, Would that be a good solution ?.

[BaseReality]

So I came Up with the idea Of using gameplay tags as It would also give me the opportunity to learn that system.
And I got this working.

strange thing is it works regardless of if I use the async load asset or not.
I thought that’s how it was supposed to work ?