tools output validly formatted files for a reason. there is not really a good reason to mess with headers etc. , the savings are so tiny its only fun for obfusc

tools output validly formatted files for a reason. there is not really a good reason to mess with headers etc. , the savings are so tiny its only fun for obfuscation or tiny binary contests... imagine, this linker name string.. its few bytes from 13K bytes. does nothing useful. a lot of parsers of file formats do ignore most fields as do linkers/loaders. AV engines look a little more at it and might trigger on anomalies simply because its indicative of tampering (not neccesarily malicious). deviating from the norm is fine as long as its grounded in a good reason, and clearly explained. simply pushing some weirdly formatted binary without any explanation, thats not very strategical in today's landscape of messed up binaries and threats. - just my 2 cents ofc.. im not an authority on the matter :p