On a small blade I prefer a small choil, just big enough to give a little extra room for a ceramic or steel. Taking 3/4" out of a 4" (or less) blade seems somewhat wasteful. You probably could get more precision for whittling and carving by having no choil at all and having the blade extend very close to the handle.

On a big blade, a full size choil is a wonderful thing as it makes the big blade much easier to use for small work, at least for me.

And if there's got to be a full size finger choil I'd prefer the shallow choil to a deep choil.