Well, there are definitely numerous ways of looking at the problem of people transport in the SEIV world. With no cryogenics described
verbatum I thought there would be some wiggle room to make things interesting. The mount wouldn't bring the component mass/volume to 25% or zero or anything drastic, because as you said:
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In my mind Colonyships should be the biggest things flying in space...carrying whole populations , construction equipment and their native ecosystems on board.
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So the colony start up equipment would still need to be pressent, including (potentially) a whole dome structure for planets with the wrong atmosphere. The mount would simply 'trim down' the tonnage. For example the ecosystems could also be on ice; the nutrient recycling systems, air scrubbers, all other things need to support actively metabolizing life forms could be significantly reduced if not eliminated. As a result you could perhaps reduce the tonnage by 10 to 20%. This is a subtle change, but that could be 4 to 8 extra engines, or perhaps more supply pods for improved range.
Likewise the crew quarters, if the crew is usually hybernating, then the life support requirements would be far more high output/short term mechanisms rather than long term/low output machines. So the mass could probably drop on both the crew quarters and life support system by perhaps 10 - 20%. But maybe the cost of these structures would increase a bit due to the specialized viving/reviving systems.
Anyway, just some thoughts, use 'em if they're helpful to you.
cheers
jimbob