Zero bytes is exactly how it's intended to be.
Note the OP_RETURN change by the development team is only a change in default relay policy.
Miners are, as always, expected to make their own policy decisions, and never rely on merely the default Bitcoin Core mining code.
Hopefully as mining returns to being decentralised, we will see less toleration of abusive/spam transactions whether the OP_RETURN variant or otherwise.
Now, if someone has a valid, necessary use case for actually storing hashes with transactions, obviously that's a case miners should seriously consider mining.
Thanks Luke-Jr. Please bear with me. Although I am not the most technically bitcoin-competent, I'm trying to ask questions so we can continue to host a conversation and share further insights from bitcoin core-devs like yourself.
Maybe I'm wrong, but I am reading your words as follows: Miners will always decide their interests in what type of transactions they wish to mine. Currently, Counterparty uses multisig which are standard transactions. Although we do not wish to add to blockchain bloat, it would appear that as long as we are allowing miners to achieve their economic interests in mining all standard multisig transactions, then the system is working as it should.
Am I understanding your thoughts correctly?