Two entries with identical materials can need opposite arrangements, and the thing that decides it is whether you have stairs.
Steps are a layering system you already own. A flat stoop is a blank surface where every inch of height has to be manufactured.
If you have steps
Use the treads as your levels and let the arrangement climb.
Largest pieces at the bottom, smallest at the top. That taper does two things at once — it gives the display a stable visual base, and it narrows as it rises so the eye is funneled toward the door.
Work up one side rather than both. A display running up both edges of a staircase closes the stairs in and makes them feel narrower than they are; material on one side with a vertical element at the base of the other reads better and leaves the walk clear.
Keep pieces at the back of each tread, against the riser. A pumpkin sitting at the front edge of a step is in the path and it's the one that gets kicked.
The safety part
Stairs are where a fall display can actually cause a problem, and it deserves a sentence.
Nothing round or rolling on a tread anyone walks on. Nothing overhanging the edge of a step. Nothing that narrows the walking width below what someone can use comfortably while carrying something. And the handrail stays clear for its full length.
If your steps are the only way to the door, they're the wrong place to put your most ambitious arrangement.
If you have a flat stoop
Everything sits at one height unless you build the levels yourself, which is why flat entries so often end up looking like a row.
The straw bale is the answer. Laid flat it gives you a broad low platform; stood on end it gives you real height in a smaller footprint. Either way it's the middle layer that a flat entry doesn't otherwise have.
The corn stalk bundle handles the top layer. On a flat stoop it matters more than it does on stairs, because it's the only thing reaching above eye level.
Depth instead of height
A flat entry can also use depth where a staircase uses height.
Set some pieces forward toward the walkway and others tight against the wall, and the arrangement gains dimension even without levels. It reads as a mass with front and back rather than a line.
That works best when the display is viewed from an angle, which is how most people approach a stoop.
Sizing differs too
Steps effectively add usable surface, so a staircase entry can absorb more material than its floor area suggests.
A flat stoop can't. What you see is what you have, and material beyond what fits comfortably ends up crowding the path rather than filling the space. On a flat entry it's worth being conservative about tier and adding an extra corn stalk bunch for height instead.