Go sram, the gx is the right price and weight. Simple stuff really.

Last time I looked it was much help lighter, got the weights their daffy? Xd freehub is also lighter in most cases.
Found them
The 2 sram version s are 325g or 390g
Shimano start at 430 then up to 445.
Looking at the amount of material left on the cogs there is no way they will ever match the weight.

GX is 30g lighter than xt but looks to be about £20 more, plus the additional cost of xd driver.

DT xd driver is 47g the shimano sram version 49g hardly ground breaking weight savings vs cost

tried removing the biggest cog?

Yes but he didn’t give any reason, if it’s the irrational fear of sram time to get over it. Shimano have made no sign of weight reduction in their design so its XTR for silly money

Sunrace 11-46 vs Sram GX was pretty much exactly 100g heavier including their corresponding drivers on Hope pro 2’s. Not the end of the world. I have kept the 11-46 in case I really don’t get on with the gearing and can’t go any smaller than 32 oval on 104 bcd cranks. Sunrace, like XT, has an aluminium largest sprocket.

… tbh, I think if you want to lose drivetrain weight over XT M8000 without going XTR or SRAM, your answer is probably M785 – possibly with an expander and aftermarket cage and just live with shifting never being quite as good as it should be.

I’m really quite surprised at how heavy the Shimano 11 speed stuff is. I like SRAM anyway and run it for preference, but I’ve looked a couple of times at going M8000 for a new build if it all needed buying together. Real world price on the GX cassette is around £75. With the X1 shifter and GX mech it’s a cracking combination.

The Sunrace is a little lighter (I think), a little cheaper, and is very well made.
I’ve got 2 of them now.