Found my old list of shipping info from my retail days. 11/16 steel tie rod sleeve shipping weight was 4#. 11/16 aluminum tie rod sleeves were 2#. This was the whole shipping package, box, packing, tape, parts. Actual weight may be less.

IMO, any flex that occurs in tie rod sleeves is due to the OEM split end design, which means its pretty marginal to begin with. Also, looking at pure lateral loading on the threaded portion of the tie rod stud, which is the same size regardless of the threaded shank size, its something like 5G's worth, which is far and away more load than any of our old heaps can corner at.

Now, if you race oval track where you are constantly being leaned on or bouncing off other objects, then yea, bigger sleeves might make sense.