While respecting paddingTop/Bottom is good, RecyclerView does draw in the padding if clipToPadding="false" is specified (and this is important for use cases like reserving some bottom space for a FAB, so that the last list item can always scroll above it and be fully visible). In this case the library should also draw in the padding. That is, the fix in 472ee5f should be applied only when View.getClipToPadding() is true.