One of the big parts of Legends Arceus to me, was gathering up apricorns to be able to create the balls. But, the recipes require 0 apricorns, and barely even allow apricorns via the allowance of any type of wooden slab for the base. This just feels wrong.
The implementation of metals in the recipe also feels stilted and awkward.
So, I suggest a compromise. Instead of the helmet-styled recipes, taking something from both fronts to create a more unified recipe. Whether this requires raw, cooked, or either type of apricorn, can be up to the team, however the rest is my design.
For the lids, you would need one of any colour apricorn, one of the relevant tumble stone, and one relevant ingot, with the ingot in the center, and the apricorn/tumblestone mirrorable on either side, in the layout of a regular modern lid. Depending on the ingot, a different lid is then produced.
For the balls themselves, while I understand buttons are consistent with the modern balls, I feel an alternate item makes more sense, the lever, as it closer functions as a latch (which the Hisui balls utilise), and gives a slightly wider variety to the balls in the mod, crafting method wise.
This would make the balls overall cheaper to make than modern balls, while still having them be difficult in their own way.
Similar to my Recipe Fix suggestion from before, I will be creating an addon which does this regardless, and offer the pack to be implemented into the mod if the team chooses.
Edit: Made the datapack https://pixelmonmod.com/viewtopic.php?f=147&t=30468