An alternative to ball-heads or gimbals are smaller reasonably priced fluid-heads typically used for video work but also work well for stills shooting.
Hudson Henry's YouTube channel has several videos explaining the rationale, use, and equipment choice for both stills and video. I use his suggestion of a reasonably priced Manfrotto fluid-head and leveling and Arca-swiss adapter plates. Works good with my D500 & 500 PF/200-500mm or X-T4. Once head tension is quickly adjusted and rig balanced the camera/lens can be moved like a gimbal but stays in place when hands-off. Also no danger of camera flopping over like when ball-head tension inadvertently left loose.