Question about topology logic

Hi all,

Earlier I was doing some basic topology practice (rerouting edge flow and whatnot) and a question started creeping on me: Does rerouting edge flow always = more geometry? Is my method not optimal or do I not understand something?

Take this example as reference and here is my method:

A subdivided plane with 81 verts.

To redirect the flow, (1) I join these 2 vertices, then (2) I add a edge loop.

I then do the same thing on the opposite side and slide some vertices to get a better repartition.

Obviously after adding edge loops, I’m now at 90 verts . I started wondering if there’s a way to achieve the same result while keeping the same amount of geometry? Is this an inherent consequences of merging different facing faceloops?

To be clear, this doesn’t cause me any issues, I was just curious. Does “Breaking” a flow in topology always = (vertex) x (the new direction’s # of crossing edge) ?

This creates 156 verts:

Starting from the one on the left, I got the vertices down from 81, to 71, while changing the flow, and maintaining quads.

Ohh nice, never thought about doing it this way.
Do you think that there is a way of either keep the exact number of vertices, or keeping the grid a 8x8?