In the end I've done what I wanted, but the experience could have been much better.
That's I believe is cli_wallet's marketing tag line ;-)
Pruning, make it happen.
Soon(TM) a.k.a. Someday.
FWIW, there's a great @andablackwidow's post about potential optimizations that among others includes pruning.
Some time ago I've made a Support, Maintenance and Development Meta-issue for cli_wallet so if anyone to add some more issues, or pitas related to cli_wallet then please do it directly on GitLab, or if just reply to my comment here, and I will file an issue for you.
Yeah, I know the definition of "Soon". I was complaining about insane resources needed to run then Steem node on my very first day on the platform. It was almost 5 years ago. But seriously, pruning is the only thing missing on my basic list of features from back then (I wanted
cli_walleton Windows, but since my new computer has Ubuntu, I don't need that anymore 😉 ). The Steem-Hive split was great not only for the health of the community, but also from technical standpoint. I have high hopes for more improvements in the future.