I think at 6 transistors per bit we really aren't talking about a lot of die area. Still I'm stone cold certain the Intel architects would increase L1 cache size if that was beneficial, if it modeled out. (However they may want to keep performance similar+predictable unless there's a solid win.)
Agner is showing they've reduced L1 latency. So this smaller is faster seems to have gotten them something.
So you really have to work backwards and ask why they didn't/don't. There may more than one reason; but they don't and haven't in quite some time.
I'm old school assembly/compiler hack. I read Agner and the Intel Optimization Manual a lot. VTune, IACA and the PMCs. Someone has to do it.