Not radical at all. It goes back at least to the early 1900's. Big newspaper owners like Colonel McCormick wanted to convey meaning by using fewer letters, thus saving on ink and paper costs.
They invented alternate spellings to suit their purposes. Most died out, but a few have stuck with us, like using "thru" for "through."
i am not sure if this is true but george lucas supposedly named episode VI return of the jedi instead of revenge of the jedi to save on ink costs. i am almost completely sure it is not true but i have not yet seen a debunking of this otherwise wacky idea that is plausible, given we are talking about george lucas here.
I always heard the reason for that as “Jedis would never seek revenge”, or something along those lines. Bottom line was that being a Jedi was incompatible with the idea of revenge.
They invented alternate spellings to suit their purposes. Most died out, but a few have stuck with us, like using "thru" for "through."