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tl;dr for baristi and cafe owners:

You can get away with less coffee on a coarser grind if the shot you pull comes out rather rapidly since the amount of soluble material is similar to a "regular" shot.

This is an opportunity to save money, especially if you only use the shot for a milk based drink like a capuccino or a flat white.

When getting into specialty grade coffee it gets a little shakey, the taste is still rather good but the texture is a little off.

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Yep, my favorite coffee bar uses only ~15g of grounds per shot, they "tune" for each type of bean. But it's true you don't need to go past 20g for a standard size portafilter. The volume yield is still in the range of a double in the high 30's, so it works just fine even without milk.

I would add that virtually all coffee you get at an independent cafe or even Starbucks is going to be speciality coffee.

Traditional non-professional espresso knowledge will often tell you that the espresso has to be packed super tight.

These results showed me that I could keep it loose and use less grounds and it's fine. Probably saving a decent amount of money at home not blowing through Illy grounds as fast.

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