I can't take the weight over a long period of time, either (I have strong muscles but weak joints), so I only buy lightish bags.
I'm lucky, though, as the only heavily embellished (and therefore, heavy) bags I tend to really like the look of are clutches and on the whole, the larger the bag, the simpler I prefer it to look and in the case of really large bags, I prefer them with very little or, ideally, no HW; so even with the, inevitable, weight of lovely quality leather and HW, I tend to avoid, accidentally, buying a really heavy bag.
Having said that, I did order an Elvire Clutch a couple of years ago, from NAP, assuming it would be lightish, as it was only about a foot wide and it weighed a ton for its size.
I sent it back.