I don't think that the small ball turns the shifter into a "direct shifter".

The only "direct shifter" out there is the Axial Flow.. all others are decoupled or isolated in a way or another.

It would not make much sense that Spoon makes a true "direct shifter" most of the people do not like the "direct" feeling. For sure they would start winning in all internet forums about the vibrations and noise, and they would blame Spoon and not themselves (a company like Spoon cannot take this risk)

@edit: the Gotuning site describes exactly what you get "The feel is more direct but remains soft"