I see that there are lots of guys who prefer shorter scopes for their style of hunting and that is more than okay. I don't care what anybody hunts with but I do get tired of people thinking it's okay to criticize my style of hunting, choice of rifles and scopes, or even ammo- all of which have happened- until they see my results...
If I only hunted tree squirrels I would change a couple rifles over to shorter scopes just for this pursuit, but the relatively open grass fields, sagebrush, and alfalfa fields where we hunt ground squirrels require you to be ready to shoot at 20 yards or 150 yards (and perhaps a bit further) , and I get a lot more time shooting paper than hunting squirrels, which are about a 4-6 hour drive away from home. For 90% of my rimfire use a 4-12 or 4-16 scope would be just about perfect for dialing up and down the power range but a short focus distance is often mandatory as those sneaky suckers tend to pop up far too close at times...
