Interesting topic.
I spent the first half of my life surfing and following swells and storms to predict where to surf. The four variables that I used to predict what spots to surf were, height, period (frequency), tide, and swell angle.
I can tell you that the longer period swells had more driving force behind them, and were much more ideal for point breaks, where the swell had the power to wrap around the reef (more potential energy). "even if it was a small height". The longer period swells were generated from storms further away, vs the short period swells (the distance bleed height, but also allowed for a more organized swell).
These storms required a lot more potential energy to perpetuate through the ocean. Tide and angle depicted how the swell would hit the reef.
If you have wake surfed, think of the period as the difference between riding a fully loaded boat at 9 mph vs 13 mph. The 9 mph wake is generally taller, but has less push, where as the 13 mph wave may be smaller but the "sweet spot" is much longer. I wonder if the period between a surf, wake, and ski boat are significantly different? I think the other contributing factor of the surf wake not affecting a private lake shoreline (straight) is given the angle at which the swell contacts the shore. At slower speeds the boat wake is angle is much larger (say 45°). The surf wake bleeds off energy as the depth decreases, and as it hits the shoreline the wake slowly works down the shoreline gradually bleeding the remaining energy. If you take that same wake and change the angle to parallel to the shoreline, there is no gradual bleed and you get a hard pounding. The faster the boat travels the smaller the wake angle....maybe this has something to do why the wake boat wake is more "detrimental" to the shoreline.