This is especially because the FIA’s own analysis shows that of the 200kg that car weight has gone up over the past 20 years, only 40kg of that was related directly to improved safety elements like the halo, stronger chassis sides and higher energy absorption areas.

I have no idea where the narrative that modern F1 cars are so huge and heavy for safety reasons came from. A lot of the weight comes from batteries, and almost all of the size is because of performance reasons: you can fit more aero on a larger surface area and that makes the cars go faster.