I've noticed that the more nights people spend outdoors (especially solo) the smaller, more practical are the fires they light. Someone who camps out once in a blue moon tends to enjoy the novelty value of the fire and builds a big one. Someone who does it often sees the fire as a means to an end, ie cooking food, brewing a hot drink and keeping warm in the time between dusk and bed.
I'm guessing a lot of that is also due to the realisation you'll need to collect a lot more wood. Feeding a big fire takes a lot of work and people soon learn to keep it smaller