Number of bytes increases while removing lines of code - Too big to save to flash

To be honest on most ESP8266 parts you have bags of free flash. There's absolutely no need for the 12k restriction but I think it's been left in to be compatible with the 512k ESP01 parts.

Yes - Compatible setting that work for all ESP models:

• three pages to save code (0x78000 - 0x7A000)
  
• one page to save wifi (0x7B000)
  
• firmware can be up to 468KB