One of the great thing about the Ford Performance Driving program, they teach you much of this and give you an opportunity to see the differences in the different modes in a controlled environment.
I retired from a supplier that had X plan and when I was trying to get the all the information for X plan on an Expedition, the dealer said that he would give me the x plan price, or less, without information. I have bought a vehicle from that same dealership about every 18 months to two years...
Nothing new here. GT guys say that the DH isn't worth the extra money and DH owners wonder why you would buy a loaded GT for not much less. When I see $20k gaps in stickers, people aren't comparing apples to apples.
Buy a Dark Horse, pay the gas guzzler tax and not worry about it. I have two other Fords with Start Sop and I bought a cable that addressing being able to keep it turned off, but when you hit the button it functions again.
https://www.autostopeliminator.com/?gad_source=1
The company I retired from is Ford's battery supplier, so we were pretty close to the electrical people at the OEMs and hooking directly to the battery is not a problem. No matter how you attach the maintainer, if you don't open the doors or perform an activity, like opening the trunk, the car...
I have seven vehicles so when I am not driving them I always plug in a maintainer. Fords since at least 2016, go into sleep mode after "X" (two weeks, I think) amount of time. even if you have a maintainer on it.