but the overall total amount of work to do would be less and the risk involved is also less becausre there's fewer things that could go wrong.
I´d say you´re wrong. Cruise is typically not the phase were you have issues. Or real workload. Landings and takeoffs "generate" most accidents. If your flight basically consists of a takeoff and a landing, your risk is way higher statistically.
I´ve done quite a lot of SP work mostly on KingAirs and the short hops were always the most stressful flights in my recollection.