The objective is to make the smallest SB3 file that can simply be imported into Scratch 3.0 without a "The project file that was selected failed to load" error. Any means can be used, like editing the JSON or better compression. Here's where I am with project.json, the only file inside mine:
{"targets":[{"isStage":true,"name":"Stage","variables":{},"lists":{},"broadcasts":{},"blocks":{},"comments":{},"costumes":[{"assetId":"00000000000000000000000000000000","name":"","md5ext":"00000000000000000000000000000000.svg","dataFormat":"svg"}],"sounds":[]}],"meta":{"semver":"3.0.0","vm":"0.0.0"}}