My initial thoughts:

Keeping in mind the dictum that form follows function, optimizing gear for secondary considerations, like saving space in one's pack, or designing it to combine several usually separate functions in one item will almost always compromise functionality to some degree. For some less than critical functions, like digging cat holes, a suboptimal tool is perfectly fine. I use a tent stake for that and it works well enough. But most of my gear serves a critical function.

You'll need to be extremely clever to design more functionality into fewer pieces of gear than most of us have already winnowed our gear lists down to, and to design it with minimal enough compromises to satisfy some very demanding users.

I look forward to seeing if this discussion attracts much participation, and if so, what directions it might take. Good luck.