For the record, I "hot-edited" mine (on one 3.3 device) in exactly the way you describe just the other day. The edit took what? 20 seconds? It's a big update compared to that.
As it happens the update wasn't actually pushed down for quite a while.
I have ZERO Idea of their update scheduling, : )
Also... just one tip:
I could "firewall" using Windows hosts file, no, you couldn't, well you could but it wouldn't do zip, but... moving on.
Perhaps catch you when you have a bit more space for the project.
Laters...
and I'm glad you are enthused about the prospect of being a hack author