It's been many years since I've been skiing and the equipment has changed a lot. However most likely with the bunny slopes - can you still call them that without the SJW's getting after you? Most likely the shorter skis were better since you don't necessarily have the speed to need or make longer skis better. I'm not sure how you were taught, but you should be able to do the snowplow and then bring the up-slope ski in to the down-slope ski to make the turn, it takes practice. With the shorter skis this was likely easier or you were more able to just turn both skis at the same time.
Also there is nothing technically wrong with using shorter skis if that is your prefernce, but they may not be as stable at higher speeds. I recall a number of years back shorter/wider skis were all the rage for awhile, may still be. This may not matter as much for beginner slopes, but on higher grade slopes when you may end up going faster than you want it will take more effort to slow down and your stability will not be as good with short vs long skis. Experience of course would make this matter less to most people in most circumstances.