It ends where the mass majority of people involved find they shoot the best at the targets at hand. You can't be expected to understand it because you are just an armchair expert who parrots what he reads elsewhere. If I am wrong, and you have deduced that 30" barrels are the "norm" through actual observation and analysis, answer my question about how many big sporting clay shoots you have attended and competed in, or even sat and watched. I think I already know the answer to that .......... so just consider it a rhetorical question.
SRH