Amazing WIP thread @tat! Very interesting to see your progress and ideas develop. Also your sculpted accents are 🔥
I think you’re on a smart path for optimization by using linked duplicates. In fact I believe you can get away with only 2 unique objects: 1 step and 1 side. Since they’re rectangular you could fully these objects from all sides equally and then have enough rotational options so each step and side appear unique:

Does that make sense?