Regulars want to be able to go to their desired destination quickly. Don't make them wait for the entire home page to load before they can do anything. Put the navigation bar at the top or the left of the page. Don't bury navigation in a table. Also, use quick-loading techniques to create your navigation.
Testing shows that users tend to prefer short pages and clear navigation.
Pages that are too long become overwhelming to users. Short pages mean users don't have to wait so long for a page to load, and they can move quickly around the information space. Large information spaces need to be divided into multiple smaller pages. This necessarily leads to a deep site rather than a broad one, but it works. Don't mix directions.