Originally Posted by
C9H13N
The Campagnolo headset bearing cages are designed to maximize the number of balls in each race. There’s no advantage to leaving them out.
+1 this. As are Campagnolo bottom bracket ball retainers, which hold a full 11-ball complement (14 balls, for actual Super Record/C-Record retainers). If the balls are worn, you can press them out of the retainer and press in fresh balls.