Just found this topic and I think it’s almost the same question I asked here: Why is using a Soft Reference from an actor in Blueprints still loading everything in memory in the Editor (according to the Size Map). Am I missing something?
Even just referencing an actor as a soft ref in BP seems to always hard referencing assets (according to the Size Map). I don’t know if the Size Map thing is reliable or not in the Editor. I thought it would indicate something light if you don’t do anything with the soft ref (not Loading Asset or Casting).
It would be interesting if someone could shed some light!