Jayme,
I work very closely with BI Platform Influence council to get product enhancement and this method of eliminating SP + Patch has been on list from over 18months. Currently there is NO supported solution that SAP will endorse. This is why we working very closely with the vendor to have them provide a proper solution.
The article would help regain disk space when your BI 4.0 w/SP04 to BI 4.1 w/ SP6 first. The second half of SP to Patch has no supported solution at this time.
You could have saved space on the clients by un-installing ALL the tools and then installing BI 4.1 w/SP6 + Patch 03.
You may be able to get information on future enhancement from the road-map
https://websmp106.sap-ag.de/~sapidb/011000358700000395272012D.pdf
Thanks Kindly,
Ajay