[Arran]

the 70s "stereo" console we had used a 1" cylinder with included mechanism for changing 45s. We could stack 10-15 of them. the mechanism was WAY BETTER then the slanted stack rod used for the LPs. Even as a young kid I recognized that. Although we never had issues with non-changing LPs, but the drop seemed to be more prone to damage the record than the way it fell on the 45s.

regarding changing the standard for smaller holes. that would have made little sense. A big part of the market for singles has always been the jukebox company, until they made CD ones; about when 45s stopped being produced. Making 45s with smaller holes would have been incompatible with jukes still in operation, plus a certain quantity of 45s players still in existence. You cannot change a standard in a non-backward-compatible fashion just because you stop producing the reader; that wouldn't be good marketing.

If jukeboxes were the only ones who needed the 1'' hole why burden the other 80% of the market with them, make the 45s with a 1/4 inch hole standard and punch 1'' holes for the jukes. It wasn't unusual for the record industry to produce special format records, Seeburg used to make a commercial music system for use in stores or factories that used 16-1/2 RPM records, about 12 inches across, but with a 1'' hole. Or they could have made them like they did in Britain and elsewhere, punch them out with a standard 1/4'' hole but with a 1'' knock out simialr to what you would find in an electrical box.
As I also mentioned it never made any sense to me to manufacture these records with a 45 RPM speed, if they had made them at 33-1/3 RPM they could have reduced the size. The whole format just seems stupid to me, it seems like they just made a different record for the sake of making something different. It's like the original Highway Hi-Fi records that Chrysler developed with Columbia for 1956-57, they made the records and players at 16-1/2 RPM with an 8'' disk I believe, they sold a number of machines but the format quickly died because of the limited music selection since Columbia was the only manufacturer. Then they brought the idea back in 1960 using the 45 RPM format, it faired a little better since there was more selection but the player was only really useful if you either parked the car or were driving down a really smooth road.
Regards
Arran