I know it's unlikely they are actually little balls
but I mean in the same sense Protons are little balls.
As far as I know, Electrons arn't as depicted, the balls just show how the energy/electrostatic forces etc tent to arrange themselves around the nucleus. Protons on the other hand, are actually Matter in the centre of an atom.
So are the Depictions of Quarks and Gluons closer to reality? like protons, Or completely different? like electrons