KC, from memory your bike looked it was awfully friggin heavy.
entertain yourself and put all your stuff together and weigh it.
I'm not discounting the point you are making. I've been backpacking since I was in college. Weight is even more important when you are on foot. To that point - there are some extras that I carry that 99.9% of people wouldn't consider, but thats just me.
As to the previous trek you are recalling - that wasn't just a riding trip and it was also during cold weather. So to my point earlier about that trek being an outlier on multiple fronts - there are a couple more "fronts" in that point - weather and why I was riding/where I was going. In planning a longer trip I can tune things differently.
As to your point about weighing gear - that is quite irrelevant to the same point. That trip was an outlier so the metrics within it (specifically weight here) don't have any bearing on what I am thinking about in the future. If I organize what I take based on backpacking then the gear simplifies quite a bit. That is what will relate here, not the previous trip you are recalling. I won't be packing light, though. I like to be comfortable and not running on the bare necessities. What that equation leads to for the trip is way too early to know. I also don't know exactly what I would take for a cook set, shelter, insulation options, etc, etc just yet. I have lotsa options - but narrowing it down will take some thought.
What I suspect will add up in weight even more on a long trip (more than a couple days) is food and water. I don't expect to be doing the ride for quite some time, so hopefully the panic buying is over with store inventory. Right now I couldn't rely on going in to a store to get supplies. If that continues I would have to load up at the start to be safe.