For any use in production.
Yes, you are right all that must be considered.
Still not acceptable.
Our friends at http://www.bustle.com/, http://vine.co/, and twitch.tv (http://www.twitch.tv/directory/) ... (lots more) have demonstrated this to be acceptable for there needs.
Traditionally those sites may have also consider I am sure they will continue to be happier as the byte size shrinks, but in the interim they are able to deliver what appears to be a great user experience, in-light of your concerns.
Acceptable for what use in production?
E.g: is it an internal tool? Is it a landing page? Is it a SPA that has to do a bunch of things before content can get rendered? These considerations have an effect on what is an acceptable webpage weight for most teams.