Obviously straight pool on the big track is ideal, but I play it on a bar table sometimes just screwing around if I'm playing by myself. Since patterns are similar, I think it helps my overall bar box 8 ball game. It's a very different game on the bar box, since way more non traditional break shots are available. The congestion also poses some challenges and allows for more dead balls, caroms, billiards, and combos. All in all, IMO it's a little easier to run balls on a 7' diamond than a 9' diamond, simply because of the shorter distances for the bulk of shots. There was a podcast a while back with Schmidt and he thinks 8' tables are the easiest for straight pool, followed by bar boxes, and then 9 footers. With the 8' table, he says congestion isn't really an issue and obviously length isn't either compared to the 9 footer. With the 7 footer, balls are missed less, but it's much easier to get in trouble with congestion and precision is much more paramount.