I think there are several reasons for the long gear. You get no ground effect on the wing to hold it down to the ground. That allows faster liftoffs, and smoother touchdowns. You also increase your AoA as philly said, youre already rotated before the tail comes up. The tall gear lets you turn a mammoth prop (someones gonna get a wild hair up thier *ss and put a saito 100 on one and turn a 16 inch prop, its just a matter of time ). It also gives that prop some protection in the event of a hard landing (ie: falling out of a hover/tr at 4 ft off the deck and ploppin it straight ahead on the gear----ask me how I know about that one). The gear mushed itself outward, and absorbed all the energy of the impact. All I had to do was pick it up, wipe the clay off the prop, and restart. We had one idea at the field that it also counterbalanced some weight outbound to negate pitching toward the canopy in a hover, but we stole that guys pocket protector,gave him a wedgie, snapped his suspenders, and sent him home. LOL JK

The last advantage the large stork gear has, is that it trains you for when you have a giant scale plane. After landing your magic, you can go out on the runway, grab it by the tail skid, and drag it backwards, just like the giant scale guys do. that never fails to get a laff on the flightline.