An opening larger than the camera gate that made the negatives will show the rebate edges -- not the full rebate with sprocket holes, obviously, but the idea of doing this is to confirm that you're showing a completely uncropped image. Whether that matters to you is a matter of esthetic preference, of course.
In your second example, however, where the lower plate has a 24x35 opening, this won't show the rebate edge on both ends of a 24x36 frame. Some cameras actually produce a 24x35 frame, but this still won't show the frame edge -- both openings would have to be outside the cameras gate edge to show the frame edge all the way around.