could you use something similar as like a stand alone for suspension kit for ifs kicks? like the front ifs just have the air shocks  to be the struts and coils?

I don't see why you could'nt as long as you keep your rig lite, you would have to make a couple of custom brackets for the top and the bottom of the shock unless you want to weld to the shaft on the bottom, that might make for a ruff rebuild though, some of those shocks have a very large shaft size i'm sure you could find one or two to work.

I've been thinking about this for a while, but im worried about the structural role that the strut plays in the front suspension.  Do you think that an air shock would be able to fulfill that?

You ever see a comp buggy flip over backwards?  how hard on a rig are you? those things are on full size rigs also. if you ever get a chance to work on a zuk take a look at some of the metal thickness on most of the parts, I believe the shafts on those are hardened steel and the seals have gone through alot of changes over the years, I remember running marvin shaw shocks back in the late eighties early ninties when you had to get together with a bunch of your friends and throw them all on the table and match them up in pairs to get closer lenthes on them, LOL    it's been a while sence then. but we ran over a hundered miles an hour with them in the dunes all the time, still have my 11 second four seater in the barn, sold the fast one.