Ways to minimize number of game objects in UI

currently my inventory system has an object for each slot, the stack counter of each slot, and then the hotbar is a duplicate of those. afaik they have to be different objects, would there be a way to have the stack number on the same object as the slot itself? like a mask? idk if this is possible, it just feels weird to have 2-4 gameobjects per slot just to allow stacking

Theck this infinite scroller for ScrollRect component
https://github.com/mopsicus/uis