'essentially less' is a correct and usable phrase in written English.
You could use it to describe something that is similar or equivalent but on a smaller scale. For example: "The apartment was essentially less expensive than a house, but it offered all the same amenities."
Essentially: less stuff equals less time spent taking care of it.
I recall seeing an interview with Keith Jackson, whom I consider the premier football announcer, in which he chided today's analysts, saying essentially less is more.
Possibly the most intriguing aspect of what has happened is how quickly the French Football Federation has become the focus of a set of anxieties which are essentially less to do with sport than to do with national identity and ultimately the meaning of the French Republic.
Oxide solubilities have been stated to be essentially less than those for molten chlorides at the same temperature.
P ≪ Q means that P grows essentially less rapidly than Q; i.e., for each ε > 0, P ( t ) Q ( ε t ) → 0 as t → ∞.
This property is a weakening of the property (1.4) (1.5) and, as we will obtain below, leads to essentially less hard limitations on the given system.
What Shields wants essentially is less plot – less fictionalising, in fact – and more reality in all its messy "truthiness".
"Over time, the scroll will essentially be less and less relevant until it's gone, and then we'll have a fully distributed entertainment network," Mr. Shapiro said in an interview.
Mr. Arima responded to the questions by saying, essentially, that less is more.
On the other hand, there is an excellent section of very nicely turned grammar and punctuation heuristics: essentially a less annoying Lynne Truss in a bottle.
Perry is essentially a less dykey Pink (that faux-lesbian single notwithstanding) with bigger boobs, and her stage-managed "controversial" persona became irrelevant the moment Lady Gaga went mega.
