Hi Wombat, I have a few thoughts here.
What sized supers do you have, 10 frame? If so, maybe you could consider 8 frame supers. Or there may be other ways that you could eliminate lifting heavy supers. Shallower supers are not the only answer and different sized frames may create other problems. I don't see the need to lift heavy supers full of honey for a hobbyist beekeeper. When I take honey I remove individual frames from my full depth honey supers, shake and brush the bees off and then put them into sealed plastic crates on a mobile trolley that is wheeled to the extracting room.
If you do decide that shallow supers are the way to go, maybe you could use 'Ideals' or whatever size you choose in all boxes of your hives.
The other thing you might want to consider is the extraction process. Two 'Half Depth' frames would probably fit in your extractor where one 'Full Depth' frame will fit. If you can put in twice the number of half sized frames then you won't notice much difference in the extraction process apart from an increased number of frames to uncap. If you go for 'Ideals' then you will probably only be able to fit the same number of frames in your extractor as with the 'Full Depths'. Consequently with an increased number of smaller frames, you would need to run your extractor more which could be a problem with a manual extractor.
All the best, I'll be interested to hear what you come up with.