How much olive oil is too much?

I'm working my way through several focaccia recipes, and was struck by the amount of olive oil in some of them. For a loaf with 3-1/2 cups of flour, many recipes call for 2-3 tablespoons of oil in the dough, plus another tablespoon or more on top of the bread before and/or after baking.

I do like to add a tablespoon of olive oil to my breads, which I think helps to reduce staling, but it seems to me that these larger amounts are excessive. So I'm wondering what the purpose of that much olive oil is. Is it added for taste? Texture? Tenderness? Hydration? (which could be accomplished with water instead) A more open crumb? A softer crust?

I'm asking because I do try to limit my consumption of fats, and even though olive oil is healthier than Crisco or lard, it's still 15 grams of fat per tablespoon. Thanks in advance for any thoughts on this! Seth

All the focaccia recipes I've seen call for an extreme amount of olive oil, usually also butter too. Taste has to be a big part of the reason. I suspect the oil added on top is also possibly meant to give a certain texture to the crust, or for helping protect any toppings from burning.

From my (limited) experience trying to find how little oil I can get away with and still have a reasonably soft sandwich bread, it does take quite a bit more than I'd like to get the tenderness I want. So I suspect that's a large part of it. This year I'm looking forward to finding less calorically dense means to accomplish that. Scald/yudane or tangzhong seems to be a common recommendation for softness, but I'm not sure how effective those techniques are as a substitute for oil.

If what you think about oil reducing staling is true, in that regard it would make a good bit of sense when baking a very large flatbread like focaccia, to put a lot of oil in the dough, since flatbreads tend to stale faster.

There is a thread with a long discussion of fats in bread at

https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/24906/30-rye-sourdough-sandwich-loaf-yes-even-rye-breads-can-be-fluffy-and-soft

One point is that you want to avoid low amounts of oil or fat, below 2%. Above 2%, the results depends on the kind of lipid. This is possibly the most informative bit:

In reference to the fat conundrum, lipids end up replacing the protein film that surrounds the CO₂ bubble. Polar lipid molecules stabilize the gas bubbles to a greater degree than the proteins. From 0% to about 2% by weight, all fats reduces loaf volume. The hypothesis is that at these low levels, the film is mixed protein/lipid and is less stable than either alone. From 2% to about 10%, loaf volume increases with increased polar lipids. Non-polar lipids have a more deleterious effect on loaf volume as the amount of non-polar lipids is increased.
Generally polar lipids include saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids. Non-polar lipids include polyunsaturated fatty acids. Lard, butter, egg yolks, olive oil and coconut oil are high in polar lipids, as are all dairy; thus improve loaf volume. Canola (who can stand the taste anyway?), corn, sunflower and soybean oils, margarine, and vegetable shortening all have high levels of non-polar lipids, which reduce loaf volume.
This info gleaned from Bread Science, by Emily Buehler, and from private correspondence with Dr Buehler.

Also this:

to assure extra volume due to fats, use at least 4–5% (more for oils, especially those high in polyunsaturates). At some point slightly greater than 10%, the effect levels off.

TomP