Anyhow, I suspect your demographic is a bit skewed here, Crab. Anyone that reads PPRuNe for fun and profit is probably paying a bit more attention to their flying than the average Joe.
I expect you are correct but there are probably a few who wring the last bit of performance (perhaps because they have to) out of their aircraft.
it is too easy to get a light helo to the point where it will just about hover OGE but that gives you absolutely no margin for error to deal with turbulence, wind shear, less than perfect flying or dirty blades/sluggish engine.
One option is to give yourself a thrust margin (we tend to use 5%) such that you calculate your max AUM for the conditions to hover OGE and then take 5% of that mass off and use that as your new 'don't go above' AUM. In that way you have some spare performance for 'the wife and kids' and should avoid embarrassing settling with power when making steep approaches.