One of the reasons perhaps JRACLOUD-70298 isn't being voted upon is that we can't vote on it? I find it hard to believe that this hasn't been included already in the offering, and the request has been around for 4 years.
To note: it's not possible to send a message to customers that log into the Service Portal. You'd think that selecting Settings > Send email , selecting the Customer Service Portal from Project roles, then selecting Service Desk Customers from the roles selection to the right, would allow you to send emails to those customers. However, after crafting the email and attempting to send, you get a message stating "The chosen project/role combination(s) have no members."