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When you do the stability calculations (I'm a structural engineer, so it's part of my "bread and butter"!), what matters is the height, orientation, and offset of the Centre of Gravity with respect to the equilateral triangle of the feet on the ground.
For "small" mounts, the mass and height of the mount and OTA above the apex of the tripod is relatively small, so the tripod can be relatively tall / steep and still have good stability with the eyepiece at comfortable height. As the mount and OTA get bigger, the Centre of Gravity gets higher above the apex of the tripod, so you need a squatter / flatter tripod to get the same stability.
Most typical equatorial mounts put a lot of counterweight mass on the polar side, so you want to place the tripod with one leg pointing due south for optimum stability.
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