You can also try Object > Path > Simplify in Illustrator. Removes a lot of the points that may not be necessary.
What application are you using to assemble the document?
If you use something like InDesign you can just place the vector files and it only includes the full file when outputting so shouldn’t be an issue. Same way books with 100s of pages of high rez images are done, they aren’t actually IN the file, but linked.
R