No not your imagination at all, the balance and length of barrel go hand in hand which in turn alters how it swings. The longer barrel also aids pointing, I know you should never look at your barrel but it is in your peripheral vision and the longer it is the more information your brain has to process subconsciously.
It also depends on your style of shooting, aggressive shooters might benefit from a gun that slows them down a bit, more laid-back style might benefit from a livelier gun.
There is genuinely no right or wrong answer to this only personal preference to suit your shooting style. But to give you guidance the debate for sporting is usually 30” v 32” not 28” as it is never really argued that 28” is the way forward. If anything, it’s to go even longer at 34” and to be fair people have won recent world championships with 34” guns so they have proved the case for them but they are way too much for me.
I can’t recall the last time a 28” won a major sporting title so why learn with something you have to change then relearn sight pictures when you get better?
Barrel length is one of the things that is open to all sorts of old wife’s tails.
I was at a shoot where someone blamed missing a target because his 28” was out of range the 30” his mate was shooting was in range hence why he hit it ;-).
Stick with the 30” and change when you shoot a gun that feels better to you is the best advice anyone can give.
