Block entity dilemma - can you make dyeable blocks via a hexcode system without making them block entities?

As the title reads, I’m making a mod and part of the mod has dyeable armor. I want to make this armor able to be painted with a paint gun. The paint gun can be loaded with a certain hexcode of a color and when applied to an armor block, the block changes its tint to match that hexcode color.

How possible is this without block entities? I was told this would be very laggy on a server if players had a lot of these armor blocks placed around the map. Is this true? Or would non-ticking block entities be alright? Like once they are dyed they aren’t constantly updating.