RE: All these short bows!!!
I, too, am one of those who fell for the "shorter is better" trick a couple of years ago. I liked the bow, thought it shot pretty well, and all was good until I started shooting in a league where consistently hitting the keyhole of the doorknob on the door of the barn's broad side is all that mattered. Hitting the doorknob wasn't good enough. I learned a lot through the process of trying to get to a point where I could achieve the consistency that this challenge presented, and I considered myself to be a pretty good shot up until then. Here are some of the things that mattered to me:
1. Anchor points: you can never have enough. Okay, I knew that one, and had them down. String to the tip of my nose, kisser button to the corner of my mouth, thumb knuckle right below my earlobe. But I didn't know about the "eyeball anchor" too.
2. Due to the size and shape of my head and face, the string angle from that shorter A-A bow could give me 2 of the 3, but never all 3. I could only get nose-and-mouth if I increased my draw length (and it's already 30", normally) and anchored my release-hand quite a ways behind my ear. Not good. I could get thumb-and-mouth but then the nose anchor was lost and the peep was too far from my eye unless I really tucked my chin down. Nose-and-thumb just was never going to happen unless my nose grew even more.
3. I learned that it is absolutely not good enough to cheat on having the sight ring exactly fill the peep. The peep diameter is variable by changing peeps (or if you're bold, start "too small" and carefully make it incrementally larger with a drill or reamer) and quite a few sights come with multi-position mounting brackets where you can fine tune the distance between the peep and the sight ring to get a precise "fit".
4. The closer I can get the peep to my eye, the better.
5. Brace height and axle-to-axle together are going to direct the string angle @ draw. I haven't really thought about this too much, but I suppose a longer "target bow" A-A and the subsequent steeper string angle can be compenstated for by using a longer D-loop and not messing up the release anchor point.
6. The deflection of the limbs at draw can't be ignored, either. It's not the A-A at rest that's important, it's the A-A at draw.
During the time of my struggles, the local shop started carrying "Brand D" bows. The model "M" seemed a much better fit to my physical attributes (plus is just a much nicer bow!) so I promptly sold my "Brand M, Model _ _ XT" and bought the "M". Night and day difference, no keyhole is safe from me now. About six months later, I tried (and quickly bought) the saucy model "L" by "Brand D", and it was also a perfect fit for me. [Note: "L" is 1" shorter than "M" but the brace height is 1/2" deeper. Geometrically, the string angles at draw are within a quarter of a degree.]
Of all the new bows I shot this winter, the one that had the most appeal to me was the model "G" by "Brand E". Guess what? it's also within a fraction of a degree of the "M". [Note 2: just for kicks, I pulled out the calculator and my trigonometry skills one last time to compare the "_ _ XT" to the "M", and the string angle is 3* to the bad. Mathematically, the string is 3/8" away from the tip of my nose and the peep is just a hair over 1/2" farther away from my eyeball.]
Getting to the end, here: I don't think a short a-a bow can ever work for me, but for smaller people they're probably fine.