Jay, for the longest time, I would do a knuckle stretch and get the exact same bowl shape every time and feel like that was all I could do, but, eventually, I found ways to get thinner, more even opens. I took a few minutes and looked around for good dough stretching videos, and, as far as youtube is concerned, there's not too many- at least not for the relatively slack/extensible high hydration minimal kneaded doughs that I make and recommend. I can't throw my dough nor can I do a great deal of knuckle stretching with it. This is sort of how I approach it:
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There's a few things that I do a little differently.
1. When I'm forming the 1/4" rim with my fingertips, I leave a small mound of dough in the center of the skin. I'm not 100% certain that this does anything for me, but my doughs have a strong tendency to stretch too thinly in the middle so I do this to try and counteract it.
2. I do pop any large bubbles in the rim because I don't like the uneven way in which they bake. I do
not pop them violently, though. Slapping activates gluten/creates toughness (as well as pops smaller bubbles). I just gently pinch any large bubble that I come across.
3. I may incorporate it eventually, but, right now, the open (like a clock)/turn technique doesn't feel comfortable to me. I use pretty wide dough containers (8"), so, by the time I form the 1/4" rim and the mound in the center, It's wide enough to knuckle stretch. As I said before I don't knuckle stretch for long- I do my best to stretch the area closest to the rim, but no matter what I do, the center gets thin. Once the center starts getting thin, I return the dough to the bench, and, for the rest of the form, the dough stays on the bench.
4. The last thing I do, Gemignani doesn't do. The center of my crust is the thickness I want, so, at this point, the only thing I want to stretch is the outer circumference- the area just next to the rim. Tom Lehmann, in this video here, does sort of what I do:
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3:34 to 3:49. The difference is that if I lift the dough as high as he does, the center will stretch a little more so I pull the edge apart with the skin mostly on the bench, moving my hands around the stationery skin rather than moving the skin or lifting it. I'll also do these edge pulls on the peel if I feel like I need a little more size.
I know I've seen other people do my last edge pulling step in videos, but I think they've been part of private collections that members have posted here. If anyone here has a link, that would be great.
I think that using these techniques, you should be able to get a more even, thinner skin- with less dough. .1 thickness factor, for NY style, is way too thick. Once you've got a better grasp of stretching techniques, I'd see how .075" works for you. A thinner skin (with a smaller rim) along with a higher hydration should give you much better oven spring and help combat that slight amount of breadiness that you're encountering.
