It has to be noted that the thinner ropes eliminate any realistic opportunity to use any sort of body rappel, hasty rappel, dulfersitz. As a hasty rappel becomes more vertical any rope will attempt to fold you in half horizontally. A single 7/16" rope tries hard to saw you in half vertically. Thinner ropes could be expected to saw more aggressively. It pretty much makes a harness and belay device a requirement.
It also makes some sorts of handling more difficult. You aren't going to be pulling on the line without heavy gloves or ascender/s.
The practical requirement for a harness, belay device and some way to grip the line complicate the issue.
Speaking to the consequences of abraision. One of my Vertical Rope instructors would take a pice of webbing and a prusick cord of 6mil. He would then have someone hold the webbing and using the prucsic cord literaly saw through the webbing. This would happen fast, VERY fast. A prusic cord under load can chew through webbing in about 30 seconds, if that long.
You are absoluty correct when you say that the thinner rope requires more gear and thought. When I orginaly posted about using 6mm line it was intended to be in a doubled form and for a one way trip. If you wanted to go back up the doubled 6mm cord, you could do that using a prusic loop. Heck you could even cut the material for the loop of the end of the rope you just rappeled on. They do that technique on Purcell systems.
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