Are standards for official parts too strict?

[Orion Pobursky]

Allow small gaps in parts (sub 1sq LDU, with some discretion)

I disagree with this except for the cases where a "Needs Work" is applied.

Allow duplication of optional lines (this one would be really, really good IMO)

Please elaborate. Most modern editors don't even use these except for LDView which uses them for smooth curve detection.

Allow comments in parts of form 0 or 0 //

I never understood why we care about comments in part files to begin with. I do think that 0 // should be preferred except for the bare case of just 0