@John q Yes, I know Gregg and his display tank is the one that comes to mind when it comes to maximizing both plants and fish. He's very meticulous and, um, I wouldn't put myself at his level (and runs a very different system than me besides), so I would love a greater breadth of examples.
I've always stocked at or close to the maximum recommendation for my tanks, depending on layout, as I love fish so much.
Not sure how much it counts but I have around 220 fish in my 1500 - they are all small though (all 30mm or less). It sounds a lot of fish, and feeding times are busy for sure, but the rest of the time when they're all going about their business, you'd never tell that many fish were present.