It sucks that production steel bikes are generally so overbuilt these days, makes the "steel is real...heavy" thing a self-fulfilling prophecy. @
Spoonrobot, could you say more about the "high value legal proceedings"? Where there some frame failures that have the manufacturers scared?
I remember a few posts in the Framebuilders forum about how the testing puts unusual forces on forks, but I'd have to dig.
Seems like you have to go vintage or custom to get lightweight steel...