Less bouncy, yes

I've tried both ways

In my mind, those street vendors would have to need tons of ice to ice bath their meatballs, and they would make hundreds of the balls, so that must have been juts home cooks' tricks....until i tried both ways, and yes, softer without ice batch, and nicer with ice bath

With or without, we would still get nice meatballs, just differ texture 😁