Not hard to select a screen resolution that keeps in-game chat text at a minimum size if you're the kind of person that wouldn't like this sort of idea. I say go for it!

but screen resolution doesn't change the relative size of chat at all, and affects tons of other stuff

 

guess you haven't heard of cg_chatheight and such either

I would rather make my chat smaller not the lines shown and also reposition it a little lower... Is that possible?