I would be perfectly happy shooting a 2 or 4 bore punt gun, it is much easier to safely mount and fire one of those than a larger model. It is also what is owned by those who have extended me invitations to try out. I can't imagine the recoil of a maximum legal punt gun as it is a bit over 1 bore in diameter.
And it is not the crass thought of a large bag but the nostalgia and tradition of using such a specialized piece of equipment in the manner it was designed. As young boys, my great uncles got in on the end of the market gunning era. They were the retrievers and ran down cripples in their canoes. Then they got to pluck the birds afterwards. Prices reached a high of $1.50 for canvasbacks but most were $0.50 or less.
Have that book on the shelf, along with several others about market hunting along the East Coast as well as the Mid-West. The latter was as large or even larger practice as the east but extended over a larger area and was not romanticized to the extent it was in the east.
