[Mr. Pickles]

The cropped version is better. With a diagonal like you have in the beach, I prefer that it cross the image and hit the corner. When it is above the corner like the uncropped version, it looks to large, like you are thinking you are seeing. With it hitting the corner, it looks "thin", and thus isn't as "fat" like the top one.

The upper pano look looks better because you have the beach in the corner too. The bottom one has no beach. And the beach IS adding a "color band" that adds to the image. Otherwise, you have a band of water, a band of structures, a band of color above the horizon, and a band of sky. Lots of "bands", but the beach adds another darker color band, and a diagonal one at that.