>> Perhaps I will give both a try, for comparisons sake. I haven't made any spheres yet, just the hyperbolic Christmas balls. <<

That's a great plan.

https://www.supergurumi.com/crochet-shapes-crochet-balls-and-spheres

As you can see here, the easy version has a couple advantages of its own:
1) It lends itself easily to stripes.
2) You can use it to make a capsule shape, like for bolster pillows.
https://web.archive.org/web/20170928141653/https://stitchesnscraps.com/free-pattern-simple-crochet-balls/

I also found a beach ball pattern with vertical stripes:
https://www.craftpassion.com/beach-ball-amigurumi-crochet-pattern/

And a soccer ball, this looks super easy:
https://www.repeatcrafterme.com/2018/05/crochet-soccer-ball.html

>> Yay! I always seem to learn such interesting things from your poems and our conversations. It's awesome :D

That makes me happy.