Fluid height RecyclerView when full or empty

I have a dynamic recycler view. Which expands the height of its parent when full and looks really nice however when there are no entries added to it yet or there are few entries in it it just looks ugly.

However if I set the width to say 200dp than it looks a bit better.

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<androidx.coordinatorlayout.widget.CoordinatorLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:background="@color/shading"
    tools:context=".MainActivity">

    <androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:layout_marginBottom="?android:attr/actionBarSize"
        android:background="@color/shading">

        <ImageView
            android:id="@+id/logo"
            android:layout_width="120dp"
            android:layout_height="60dp"
            android:src="@drawable/ic_logo"
            app:layout_constraintBottom_toTopOf="@+id/list_projects"
            app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintTop_toTopOf="parent" />

        <androidx.recyclerview.widget.RecyclerView
            android:id="@+id/list_projects"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="0dp"
            android:layout_margin="20dp"
            android:background="@drawable/shape_list_item_projects"
            app:layout_constraintBottom_toBottomOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintEnd_toEndOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintStart_toStartOf="parent"
            app:layout_constraintTop_toBottomOf="@+id/logo" />

    </androidx.constraintlayout.widget.ConstraintLayout>

    <com.google.android.material.bottomappbar.BottomAppBar
        android:id="@+id/bottomAppBar"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_gravity="bottom"
        app:backgroundTint="@color/white"
        app:fabCradleRoundedCornerRadius="25dp"
        app:fabCradleMargin="5dp"
        app:hideOnScroll="false"
        app:menu="@menu/menu_main_activity" />

    <com.google.android.material.floatingactionbutton.FloatingActionButton
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:src="@drawable/ic_outline_add_circle_outline_24"
        app:backgroundTint="@color/white"
        app:layout_anchor="@id/bottomAppBar"
        app:maxImageSize="40dp" />

</androidx.coordinatorlayout.widget.CoordinatorLayout>

The desired outcome is to have it wrap the content until it reaches the bounds of BottomAppBar.

from Fluid height RecyclerView when full or empty