I had an optical mouse (Golden Image GI-6000) on my Amiga that worked on a surface of hexagonally positioned dots. Unlike the Sun mice it could work at any angle, the Sun mice had to be aligned horizontally and vertically with the mat.
I had a postscript file of the dots which I could print out and use the mouse on any piece of paper (even found one on google today https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.qdev.de%2Fdownloads%2Ffiles%2FGoldenImageMousepad.png) so I wasn't limited by the mat surface or size, but seriously who needed an A3 sized mouse surface? I reckon my current mouse working area is smaller than the pad I used back then.
The sun mice had two bits of felt underneath them, which made them feel sluggish across the metal surface, I once ripped the bits of felt off the mouse to improve its feel across the mat to discover the mat was scratched beyond functioning, a few months later.
The GI was as light and responsive as any optical mouse today. I was a bit ho-hum, when these were released,since they wouldn't work without a pad on my desk anyway.
I'd already given up on ball mice and had a dual wheel Honeywell mouse which still worked better than those first pad-less optical mice, which again was light, responsive on most surfaces, and didn't require constant cleaning.