Very true. Article 220 is extremely conservative. On a dinky converted cottage I had to put in a 400A service because they had a chunky mitsubishi hyper heat system, electric heat, an electric resistive makeup air unit for the range hood, and some other stuff. Turns out, the customer hadn't turned on the electric heat in years, and they had an oil furnace they used for heat when they were even there in the wintertime, but it didn't matter as the book says I have to calculate it with the makeup air running, the heat pump running, and the electric heat running, as they aren't necessarily non-concurrent loads as the electric heat was in rooms where there weren't mini-split heads.
My Emporia energy monitor has been quite eye opening. I have a 100A service with electric appliances, electric heat in the bathroom, a hybrid water heater, and a Fujitsu heat pump system I've been using for heat the past few months. My monthly peak 15 min demand is 4.2kW. My heat pump needed #10 on a 30 amp circuit, with a circuit ampacity of 24A or somesuch (can't remember the exact #), and the peak 15 minute demand on that is 1.92kW, which is 8 amps. Whoever wired the electric range used 10-3 romex, so thats on an 30 amp circuit breaker, and its now a QO breaker, and its never tripped, even when cooking big meals. It's just crazy how we have to keep putting in bigger and bigger services, and people scoff at the thought of a 100A service, and yet we use a fraction of it. I guess they had to make a 1 size fits all approach, and based everything on electric heat and 1 stage old school HVAC equipment, but man, most houses would be just fine on a 100A service.