Since it is a highly polished pearl/solid combo, there's little surprise that carrydown can affect it so strongly.
Since the coverstock is Soaker, it can be a little grabby (especially because of the high RG differential and the accompanying high amount of flare). A friend warned me about that; so, I drilled mine fairly weak, with the pin above the middle of the bridge and the CG kicked out about 1.5" from the grip line. It still hooks quite bit on medium oil.
The jerky reaction might be an inappropriate drilling + ball surface combination. A slight dulling of the ball surface should help.
If you chose to dull the surface, like with a hand sanding of a grey (800 grit) nylon pad, I'd suggest doing it in stages, starting with the track. Then try it to see what your reaction will be. Hand sand a little more, then check the reaction for several frames, ON a practice lane with an oil pattern similar to where you will be using this ball.
I think you may NOT want to dull the entire surface to as low as 800 - 1000 grit. If you did that, it would probably overlap too much with your Thing Lives OR it may just grab too early.
Another option is to sand it to some very fine level, like 1500 or 2000 grit overall, with a spinner and sandpaper or abralon. Then check the ball reaction.
The cover is resin; so, you can take it up and down, polish and sand fairly easily. Good Luck.
