Good Map proportions for a "planetary" ("world") map?

[Verdun]

So one of the larger things I wanna tackle is to make an exploration game making use of an entire planetary surface (though obviously the analogy works only so far, with a rectangular map supposed to represent a round planet).

I heard there are now versions of the world editor that can handle 480x480 maps.

Which begs the question -

Is it better to use the original proportions of the planet map, with the longest side fitting into the 480 and the short side much smaller,
Like so (each square represents a square of the "large" grid in World Editor):

Spoiler: Original Map

Or would t be better to tweak the proportions and have the short side somewhat thicker? It distorts the map, but I feel gaining a bigger overall surface is better, because it better takes advantage of the maximums and really dramatically increases how detailled you can make the terrain, etc.
This is really the sort of thing I guess I wanna decide long before starting the actual map.

Spoiler: Distorted Map

 

[cleavinghammer]

I'd go with the second, since distorted appearances only really apply to maps with which the viewer is familiar (e.g. the Earth).

 

[Goffterdom]

I would also go for the second.

Realism is good but brings many undesired constraints in terms of level design.

 

[OutsiderXE]

In reality the world map that we see is incorrect anyway. Stuff that is towards the south is really a lot bigger

So definitely use the second to have more space for gameplay.

 

[Verdun]

In reality the world map that we see is incorrect anyway. Stuff that is towards the south is really a lot bigger

So definitely use the second to have more space for gameplay.

One way one could correct for that in theory would be to make the polar regions even more extra thin, or calculate what proportion each latitude takes up on a round planet to determine how much surface it ought to take up on a flat surface, in percent...

But yeah I agree I guess in terms of quality of life this wouldn't really add anything to a Warcraft map