My only caution, at least in the case of the SV, would be that saying "this is not wanted with any hand-held binocular" is more of a value judgment than science. If the edge effects are "side-effects" of edge sharpness, well then, I would say that's fine. They probably are side-effects else why put them there? Could Swaro dial it back a little? Sure, that's fine too.
Look at a website such as Eagle Optics, which is probably the biggest place American birders get their optics, at least those living outside of major cities, and you'll find (last I checked anyway) upwards of sixty 5-star reviews of the SV's. Almost nobody mentions anything unusual in the view. The very few who do mention "rolling ball" (hmm, which website do you suppose they got that from?) uniformly call it a non-issue. Not one reviewer has complained about it. These are mostly birders, by the way, who pan all the time. Now, this is not a scientific study, but it sure indicates which way the wind is blowing.
Birdwatcher's Digest reviewed all the alphas last year and felt obligated to mention rolling ball (hmm, I wonder which website they got that from). They had nine experienced birders and the best they could do was say (paraphrasing here) "Some could see it; none were bothered by it."
Just two isolated examples.
The neverending "ruckus" hereabouts has been caused by a single poster who has yet to look through a pair. You'd think that might help, especially since the distortion is "anomalous" and the personal experience of it is probably nothing you could accurately predict ahead of time. To paraphrase a car ad, "This ain't your Nikon's rolling ball."
The difference between the 8.5x42 and the 8x32 is subtle, but it's there. The 8x32 has a bit more pincushion, but at the edge the reversal looks pretty much the same.
Mark
PS: I sometimes wonder if I'm optically blessed, or an idiot, or inattentive, or just too busy looking at the birds, but I seem to be able to use most of these optical formulations just fine. And I'm no "neuro-plastic" either. Just ask my wife. I'm as set in my ways as a hunk of granite. 8-P