Increased compression creates a hotter exhaust gas which in turn creates a larger volume trying to escape thru the wastegate.
Seems like some of the smart guys advocate hole a little over 0.90"...maybe 0.96"? Drop Brad a note and I think he can quote Patrick from PTE on the exact size.
It's really a complex situation because the exhaust wheel/design controls the amount of back pressure holding the exhaust flow back in the engine and that has an affect on boost control as well.
Shape of the wastegate hole (thinking of the radiusing, if any, on the back side) has an affect as well.
I am not surprised to find that you are having problems getting it under 20 psi and of course, if you are running an HD actuator, it is not going under 18 without finagling a lot.