I play a strat and recently picked up and epiphone sheraton. It has a longer scale. The difference in distance between frets is gradual all across the fretboard. The first 5 frets seem huge, and there is bearly a difference from 12 up.

It takes some practice to play the longer scale, but not difficult. My hands just knew where to go on the strat, but I have to think about it on the new one, and sometimes I still miss when playing fast. Its only been 3 weeks, so it is not insurmountable.

The biggest difference, to me, is the width of the fret board. When playing a bar 7th chord in the A position, I frequently miss the 2nd string with my pinky. Just some practice needed.

I have small hands, so I can't tell you about if bigger is better....