Here is a LONG running thread in Kontakt instance loading and such, dating back to 2011, and was active not too long ago.
There might be some good info in there for consideration, and if I recall, there are posts from conductor folks who described massive templates, as well as posts from Noel Bothwick (Cakewalk), and from some folks that approach Kontakt with a notion of more instances with fewer instruments per instance.
http://forum.cakewalk.com/FindPost/2253267 Long read, but there may be stuff there you might find helpful.
Bob Bone