Yes, it is largely about effective stacks. As long as you have a solid "method" for your open-raising size, then I'd just stick with it. Obviously, open-raises for 3x, 2.5x, or 2x are fairly common with these shorter effective stacks of many online games, but sometimes you'll also see "weird" sizing of random decimals. Things like 3.32x or 2.68x. I'm not entirely sure why those players consistently open-raise some strange decimal like that, but I assume it is some percentage or ratio to big blinds or something similar. I just notice to see if they vary the sizing or not. Even if the amount is "strange", yet consistent, then I just interpret that as their "default" open-raise size.
Also worth noting is that it is common to add 1x per limper. If someone makes it 3.25x with one limper in front, then many times this means their "default" open-raise size was 2.25x.
Generally speaking, lower raise sizes means their range of
hands is wider and you are able to call more often (due to being given better pot
odds to continue). Conversely, larger sizing less frequently tends to translate into them having a tighter range and therefore, you should be more inclined to fold.
One last thing (I got a lot of little things to say don't I?
), this changes when short stacked. At this point, you are either shove-fold mode, or are making smaller bets all around. We don't want to be in a pot with something like 20bb in our stack, continuing to bring us down to 10bbs and then folding for the rest; this is almost never correct (because 50% of your stack is a ton to invest on a hand you voluntarily fold - maybe 25% or less of your stack you could maybe get away with though). If your calling a raise (or open-raising/c-betting yourself if you were the aggressor) would commit too much of your entire stack to the pot, then you might as well just fold preflop or shove All-In preflop.