I think your issues have more to do with the scale of the pieces than the style. You can find smaller scale sectionals and if you choose correctly one could work well. You could not have much else more than a coffee table and an end table/lamp or floor lamp, but if you've always wanted a sectional and still do it can be done.
Single pieces are more versatile but with a room that size there aren't all that many configurations you are going to use anyway.
All depends on what you want.

I remembered someone here had a really nice small sectional a few years ago. The poster, unfortunately, stopped posting, but the link is below.

I think a sectional such as this would serve you well in a small room. It makes TV placement easier than trying to fit in a couple of chairs and a sofa.

Some of the small "sectionals" I've seen are little more than 2 seats and a chaise, which to my mind, are fairly useless.

Here is a link that might be useful: Sectional

I would also think about how you use the room. Do you regularly have guests? (In which case, it can be awkward for everyone sitting on the sectional together.) However, if is only used by a couple of family members watching TV or reading, then a small sectional would be fine.

I love sectionals BUT we're hoping to have guests over more in this house. The reason we didn't in our previous house is because of the small awkward set up, this house is a lot more open.

We were considering the 2 seat with chaise but it seems awkward in terms of who sits where...not really 4 true seats, know what I mean?

I was really leaning towards a sectional but more and more I look at the room, to keep the openness, to allow seating for guests in a conversational manner, I think a sofa plus 2 chairs might be better. One chair can be a recliner, one can be a smaller accent chair.

Once the TV goes up on the wall there will be more room too, instead of on the entertainment center.

I have no idea who to go with in terms of furniture. For me, ikea is too cheap and restoration hardware is too expensive. I'm not sure what the best leather furniture is in between there.

Also, would you ever buy online and not see in person or is that too big of a risk?

I am just clueless about this!

One other possible arrangement, depending on the layout of your room and what else you have in there, would be two loveseats. They could be placed across from each other (parallel), with 1 or 2 chairs, or they could be put in an "L" shape (with a small table in the corner where the ends of the love seats meet) to replicate the shape of a sectional.

DO NOT buy a sofa/chair without having tried one out in person.

Do you have a La-Z-Boy showroom near you? They carry good quality leather furniture at a reasonable price.

Where would your tv go in relation to the furniture placement? The reason I ask is that when we moved into our current home (which I love) 6 years ago, we needed new furniture to go into our tv/family rm which adjoins the kitchen. I so wanted a small sectional & was looking at PB slipcovered ones. I had one wall that would accommodate a short sofa part of the sectional, then would have the corner piece that would have jutted out past the wall some into the walk thru, but it would have been fine. Then next to that would have another short sofa part of the sectional. Does that make ANY sense??

My DH was against this look, because it did block off a bit of the entry into the tv room, but it is open concept, so there still would have been 3-4' to get into the room. This would have allowed us to view the tv straight on or at a slight angle.

What we ended up with is a nice smallish caramel leather sofa that was a floor model. I can't get into our files to check out the brand right now as DH is working from home today in our office, but if you'd like I can get that for you. This sofa is against the wall, so does not allow seating directly in front of the tv. Our other piece of furniture in there is a dark blue leather Lane recliner with wood arms, angled towards the tv. I think watching tv from the sofa position is causing me some neck pain...DH is pain free cuz he uses the recliner!! I will sometimes sit with my back against the sofa arm & legs stretched out, so I am facing the tv. Not ideal. I also have a small decorative chair (floor model from Anthropologie) that faces the kitchen, and pull it around for extra seating if we have friends or family over & watch a movie or sports on tv.

Our other dilemma is that opposite the wall where the sofa is there are sliders opening to our back yard. I'd love to move our tv to our comfortable living room, but hubby likes it off the kitchen.

Go for function over form, because it sounds like a space you'll use a lot.