The above example reminds me of what they did when Total Annihilation (a little RTS game with robots) modding was popular. The database was open ended on IDs but to avoid overwriting each other's work they agreed upon ranges of data IDs for each mod out there. So the basic live-like data went from 1 to X and then in blocks of 1000's people reserved space for custom content.
But, over my years watching and trying to contribute what I can to this project, I can say it's like having a overloaded garage full of content with no one really wanting to dig and clean it. But yes there is redundancy in the npc_types database there are 14 same level Snow Dervishes, and 17 'a stonegazer cockatrice''s, when there should only be two stonegazer cockatrices (a level 33-35-ish for the OT, and a level 37-40-ish for the DL and TT).
It is doable bite by byte though.
*looks at his garage*
*hides*
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