Hi Morris,
the problem with the SVG strings not saved might be in the view value class or the getComponentValue method. If you could share some of the code I could look into it.
Regarding requireJS I used it to load a JS library that KNIME had trouble with. If I recall correctly it is only invoked after creating the view. I used it in https://github.com/SiLeBAT/FSK-Lab/blob/master/de.bund.bfr.knime.fsklab.nodes/js-src/de/bund/bfr/knime/fsklab/nodes/neweditor/editor.js through the knimeService that actually uses requireJS with a lot of help from Christian Albrecht at RequireJS relative paths breaks some libraries submodules.
Hope that helps,
Miguel