No, but I hope to within the next 2-3 years...
Oh, then you'll see....you'll see lol.
Seriously though I have hunted with a few guys on their 1st elk hunts and they had the same thoughts you did going into it. A heavier rifle is a stable rifle, if I want light I'll use something else. And those points are valid and do make sense. But by going with something else, like you said a lever action with open sights, well you just extremely limited your shooting capabilities. You'll either have to stick to hunting thick timber, which doesn't always work especially if its dry and crunch (or crunchy frozen snow) or hell even if its snowy because you will slip and fall on down timber a lot, OR, you might end up passing up a lot of shots that are too far away.
If you were set up right to just sit and glass an active meadow or something, the heavier rifle will give you a more stable platform to make the shot. But if you have to go more then a few miles, especially UP hill, you'll spend the rest of the hunt wondering which lightweight rifle you'll be buying for next time haha.
I'm young and in shape, I still hate carrying something over 8.5-9lbs total and even then I was not real happy about carrying a 9lbs 308 this year. Sold the gun, just too dang heavy. Slippery slope though, you sure get to a point of craziness as the calibers go up while the weight goes down
