Would a fuse with a lot of area forward and nothing but rudder in the back be better than say a straight fuse 7" tall from nose to tail?
Yes, much better in my opinion.
Or, does everybody just draw a aesthetically looking shape and call it a fuse?
That's one thing. Most people want an airplane that.. well.. looks like an airplane.
If you want good knife edge with no rudder induced roll, build it the same on the top and bottom. More area up front near the CG gives a lot of lift.
The less vertical stab you have the better for "kicking" the plane around or in high alpha.
Below is my design with this type of thinking.
Note that my vetical stab runs full length of the rudder. On my first design of the same plane I used large counter balances and it did a little better KE loops and also high alpha KE.
Bill