Basically you're right. This is true of resin balls (not polyester or urethane).
Polished balls will generally skid further than dull balls. Duller balls will tend to grab the lane earlier and be smoother throughout the ball reaction. Polished balls will go longer and save up more energy for the backend and will have more angular breakpoints and backends.
Your rev rate/ball speed ratio determines to what degree your ball reaction will be affected by these changes and differences. If you're speed dominant, you will see less differences; if you're rev dominant, you will see larger differences.
A lot depends on the ball's basic design and how dull or how polished the ball is AND how it is drilled. Drilling can enhance the basic ball reaction or mute it.
Dull can be anywhere from 500 grit to 4000 grit.
Polish always has a certain grit under the polish. It also can be anywhere from 500 grit to 4000 grit. The higher the numeric grit level, the finer the surface will be. The finer it is, the less friction the ball's surface creates and the more length you will get. The less friction the surface creates, the more dry the ball needs to "see" to make it hook. The less friction the surface has, the more susceptible the ball is to carrydown.
All polishes have some degree of micro-abrasive in them. Some have very little and are considered to be non-abrasive. So they will make very small changes to the underlying grit level. Others are extremely abrasive and will "grind" the starting or underlying grit level down to very fine levels (the higher the grit number, the lower the roughness and less friction the ball creates.
Just to complicate the issue, somewhere in here, the bowler's release enters the picture. Some people's release create more of a skid/flip reaction, while others create a more even ball reaction.
That's as many generalities as I can type for the time being.
