Photoshop: "Smart Masks" - Masks that are Smart Objects

sometimes i build files with many layers that need to have an identical mask and my only solution has been to duplicate the mask to the new layers - which works fine until i have 20 layers with the same mask and suddenly i have to update them all - which means deleting 19 masks and replacing them with the updated one. instead i propose an option to create a mask and associate layers to it so that no matter how the layers are structured you can update one mask and it updates on all layers associated to it. this would be great with both pixel based masks as well as vector masks. for the record I also want to be clear that this is for scenarios where the layers cant simply be placed into a group or be clipped to a layer beneath, which i admit comes from not being as careful with layer structure as I could be - but that would be a left brain function when I am operating in right brain mode