I agree - if the heads work, the cam can be less violent.
Reasons why down-sizing an engine by stroke reduction doesn't always track: it throws anything you learned w/r/t chamber shape, dome shape, spark advance, plenum size, and especially cam events over the cliff. You're walking on new thin ice.
A traditional hemi (deep section, they're not actually a "half sphere") is a liability without enough displacement to keep the piston shape out of the chamber during overlap. Back in the day, de-stroking a 354 or 331 to get 300" (Bonneville etc.) failed in favor of DeSoto engines with smaller chambers and longer strokes.