As an archaeologist with a lot of real shovel time this one bugs me. There are diminishing returns for shovel size, at least for shovels operated by hand. If your shovel gets much larger than a regular shovel then it becomes too heavy and unwieldy. I can’t just show up to site dragging a 50 pound 8 foot wide shovel monstrosity and expect to dig any faster! Unless of course it’s attached mechanical excavator, but now the metaphor is really dying.