in the old days people used to have gardens and entertain outdoors, house parties meant bbq, satay, caterer and tables and chairs outside.

this was common before aircon was popular, at night outside is cooler.

nowadays people tile up the garden, turn on the aircon and enjoy big living room and dry kitchen.

i still prefer big porch because can park more cars, very important for bigger families. wide is better than long though long has advantage like distance from road.

also one problem with short porch is when upstairs you cant really see who is downstairs at the gate, long porch no problem.