I also tried a large variety of wood and found the following. When testing for break resistance and stability, only a fairly high density of foam stood up to the break tests, while the wood known as 'Obeche', a Louisiana swamp willow, and our northern Butternut, came out on the top for overall performance in weight, stability, bendability and break resistance. This coupled with grooves has served best over many years and most extreme applications. The weight of a batten is a trade off between break resistance or it's weight. Which ever way works best for what ever you try to accomplish.
Many people have many solutions.
Webbing is light in weight but it is limited in its performance. So far we have a sliding hinge that swivels. One easy method is a nylon shoe riveted or bolted just behind the guide rope.