If the dose fits in the basket without overflowing the edges, does tapping the side of the PF with the palm of the other hand until all the grounds have settled evenly in the basket provide a reasonable distribution?

I shake my PF from side to side and it does a reasonable job. I know that it's reasonable because of the quality of the extraction from the naked.

It never works for me. Tapping the sides with my palm or shaking from side to side separates my grounds from the sides of the basket. I can see a 1-2mm gap when I do that. The grounds just manage to cling together to each other instead of spreading like a dry sand would.

YMMV... As the wise men say...

When I tap on the side, it moves the grinds either towards or away from the sides. Shaking can distribute, tapping settles the grinds. I tap mine down to get rid of the fluff before tamping.

I never tap the sides of the PF nor shake to distribute. I do tap the bottom of the PF all around the perimeter, GENTLY, tapping upwards to settle to dose before tamping. Weighing the dose helps as well.

It is important to separate what you NEED to do from what you do during preparation. The less you do, the better. But what NEEDS to be done is, to a large extent, dictated by the grinder. Comparatively speaking, in terms of consistency, the Rocky was a pain in that regard and the Kony a joy to use. Clumpy, dense grounds take more effort than consistent fluffy grounds.

If I am overdosing a basket, I will do a light downward tap before removing the HG-one's blind tumbler from the basket. My general goal is to settle the grounds into a small enough mound to facilitate a Stockfleth swipe.

The tapping, by itself, won't really ensure clean extractions for me, so I don't bother with it at more normal doses.

Even particle distribution, I imagine, is greatly influenced by a variety of factors--some we control and many we don't. But if we account for the latter we can get closer to perfect distribution.

How well each technique works depends on how the particles are 'behaving' when they are manipulated. And that can vary greatly between different environmental settings. While particle size consistency is an obvious factor, I think things like static and humidity are equally important influencers to the prep technique, as well as liquidity (the state in which your grinds are free-flowing) and gravity (finer particles fall between gaps of bigger particles and flow towards the bottom).

The practice of shaking or tapping the PF can create a sifting effect depending on how it's done. This may not be a bad thing if the resulting distribution was only uneven on a vertical scale. It depends on the technique. I imagine adequately shaking the pf side to side can produce such a result. But again, if the particles stick to each in the process due to high humidity then such a technique is probably not as effective. Also, the finer the grind, the greater the each particle is affected by everything around it.

No one has ever developed a technique that works perfectly in all conditions, which is what makes espresso prep such a personal thing. Everyone who prepares their own espresso intimately understands these variables on a physical and perhaps, even, intellectual level as they strive for perfection.

No one can tell you what technique works best. Only what works best for them.

I'm overdosing .5g and using a tooth-pick to evenly distributing my grind. for 18.5 I ground 19g...