Keep in mind that what may be optimum in a race is not necessarily optimum for the average Joe rider. In a race, I would expect you'd want the very best sealant for plugging leaks even if it meant easily clogging a value core. Or a sealant that may work really well, but dry up rather quickly. For the average Joe, there's a balance we want so that we don't have to service our tires daily, other than adding some air.
My experience with road tubeless is most leaks drop very little pressure. I'm only aware I've had a leak if I find some dried sealant on my bike. I would assume a pro rider is sensitive enough to tire pressure that they would know when it is too low and they need to swap wheels. But I'd bet plenty of them finish a race never knowing they punctured.
Originally Posted by
veganbikes
For me personally road tubeless has a way to go before I would want to use it. Gravel and MTB stuff is great but skinny tire high pressure stuff could use some more refinement for me. I am not opposed to it but I think a big part is running lower pressures which I wouldn't want as much on a road bike. Sure there is some puncture sealing which is great but honestly the lower pressures are the thing for me and I don't want super low pressures on skinny road tires.
I think road tubeless is great. 28 mm is a common road width these days. And optimum tire pressures are in the range of 60-75 PSI. So, while much higher than MTB and higher than 40 mm gravel tires, it's certainly not high pressure by traditional road standards. Rolling resistance is quite likely much lower overall on a variety of road surfaces, and likely only a very slight penalty on super smooth surfaces.
You might be interested in this video from NorCal Cycling. They ran some real-world runs on their bikes to see if lower tire pressure made any measurable difference in time over a course. Spoiler, it didn't. Conclusion was the lowest pressure (50 PSI) ran great, but wouldn't use in a race (they do crits) for concern of rolling a tire in a corner.