When hunting I always carry a belt knife.
For antelope to elk, I prefer a 3 7/8" to 4 1/8" semi drop point blade, bevel ground, .125" thick and slightly less than 1" width.
With this I can zip, open up, split, core bung hole, gut, skin, quarter, bone out and reduce cuts as the situation requires.

I carry a smaller fixed blade (3" or so) for back up in my back pack
.
I don't put any part of my hands/fingers as far up as the cutting edge when working on game. I usually have a knife with some restriction in design such as a applied or integral guard or at least a finger notch----but not always.

But I still have a pile of knives to field test, so I could move off of center as time passes.

There are more "small" things you can do well with a bigger knife than there are "big" things you can do well with a smaller knife. Not considering the extremes here.
Just my current opinions.
Tim

"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them."
Albert Einstein

At Khe Sanh a sign read "For those who fight for it, life has a flavor the protected never knew".