>the same size as it would be as a traditional matrix-based linear algebra
You can get it that small, it's all been done, but that's far larger than a quat, which can be stored in 3 components when normalized, and in 4 for quick and easy computation.
For large models and more importantly scarce GPU memory, increasing model size results in less complex models and slower computation.
There really is no benefit for 3D engines I can tell (and I was early on the GA bandwagon 20ish years ago... It just has not and I suspect will never pan out due to the inefficiencies not being worth it).