I can't edit the above post now (thus the folly of hastily commenting on HN, perhaps), but after actually looking into it by doing a DOSBox-X install, it seems

I can't edit the above post now (thus the folly of hastily commenting on HN, perhaps), but after actually looking into it by doing a DOSBox-X install, it seems that the Geoworks Ensemble 2.0 install size is only <10MB. I suspect that my false memories of it taking more space were because, by 1993, DOS games and programs were requiring steadily more disk space (and there were more of them!). With Geoworks taking any sizeable portion our increasingly-meagre 40-52MB disks, we soon found ourselves desperately wanting those megabytes back to install this-or-that extra thing.