Here is one detail I overlooked (from above article):
“Beware though, the type is still loaded when using soft references, so if the type is BP_Weapon , it’s still going to be loaded with all its dependencies; therefore, it’s best if you use a C++ base class for variable types (you can still have a BP base class inherited from the C++ one), or a minimalist BP parent class.”
I think that might be the cause of my confusion.
It is still going to load the actor into memory, so if i wanted to reduce memory, I’d make an empty parent class, that way only a child instances extra baggage is loaded when I dictate?