Don’t be afraid of wall tents. The setup isn’t that bad - I use traditional poles with my 12x14 and I can have it up solo in under 30 minutes. Yes, it’s heavy but doable.
As far as size, I think 12x14 is perfect. More than enough room for two people, and 3-4 is doable with a stove. Yes, it’s getting tight but I don’t cook inside and honestly camp is for sleeping. I come back to camp at the end of the day, I spend the day in the field. If it’s storming, or even if you want to have a down day you can move stuff around to have more room for cards/etc.
As far as wall tent vs tipi, there’s no comparison there. Obviously, if you’re hunting off your back a wall tent isn’t an option, but if I’m truck camping I’d prefer to have the canvas 10 times out of 10.
Im not sure how campers are in the cold, but the wood stove is a godsend in the cold/wet. You can get inside and get the stove going and in no time the entire place is warm and your stuff is all dry. Even in the morning when the heat is mostly gone out of the stove a canvas tent will hold heat better. One of the first mornings I was using it I got up and thought “man it’s chilly in here”. Wood stove was dead. Nature called so I popped outside and holy shit was it cold. When I came back in I was like “man it’s warm in here”. It was probably in the high teens outside, 50s-60s inside the tent.