If one wants to reduce the number of points of a complex shape or curve and have roughly the same form, one could try using a copy of the vector layer and delete the points in there, and move the points and change the curvature of the points so, that it fits the original curve or shape.
Perhaps someone can write (or perhaps it has already written) a script to do this more or less automated. The script should remove, move and change curvatures of a selected shape or curve to contain the minimum amount of points possible. Of course, there should be an user defined pixel and angle tolerance for the difference between the original and manipulated curve or shape.
Adobe Flash has a similar function which AFAIR is called optimize curves. You can set parameters like smoothness and whether or not the operation is performed once or until no more optimization is possible. It would be helpful if one could optimize an imported vector drawing before rigging it with bones.
How about an optimize curves and optimize shapes?
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