I'm sure that there are some very learned TD pilots here with more TD experience than my few hundred hours, though, never the less, here are a few thoughts to consider when flying TD's;
Obviously, directional control requires greater precision. I won't say it's any more difficult, but I will say that you have a much more narrow band of "acceptable", and when you exceed acceptable, it gets worse faster. The differences in pitch control close to the ground are less obvious, but every bit as important to understand. They also vary more from one TD type to the net, than the similar characteristic varies between tricycles.
Consider the fuselage station of the contact point of the main wheels to the ground, in a near stall pitch attitude. (your home made napkin sketches may help here). With the TD, that's pretty well a three point attitude, so the main wheel contact point is well ahead of the aircraft C of G (if you consider the relative positions with the tail well up, the mains will be much closer to the C of G). The tricycle plane obviously has the main's contact point behind the C of G. The distance behind, again, is affected by the fuselage pitch attitude. The difference being that in the pitched up attitude, the tricycle's mains will be quite close to the C of G. We're not considering the affect of the location of the third wheel, I'll come back to that.
So, in the near stall pitch attitude, the TD has the main's contact point well ahead of the C of G, where the tricycle's mains are only slightly behind the C of G. Everything still balances, and is where it should be, but it's the well forward, vs the slightly behind which creates the challenge. It's the arm of the affect of the main's contacting the ground trying to change the pitch attitude of the aircraft on touchdown. Well forward = larger arm, slightly behind = smaller arm. The arm of the affect of any pitch change must be counteracted by the arm of the aerodynamic pitch control (elevator), if a correcting control change is required.
So, if you consider dropping the entire aircraft onto the ground from two feet up in a stalled attitude (put your hand's up, we've all done that!), the tricycle will contact the ground with a very small arm, and a resultant very small pitch change resulting from the arrival force. On the other hand, the TD will contact with a larger arm, and the result will be a pitch up of some magnitude on contact. This is one reason that a "wheel landing" on a TD will often produce a more smooth landing; if you bounce, less arm, less pitch affect (but there are other factors too).
The challenge with this is that your only control of pitch is the elevator (or stabiliator, or whatever your aircraft has back there). Unhappily for TD's, it is generally located at about the same fuselage station as the tailwheel. So, when you arrive to the runway more vertically than horizontally, as soon as the tailwheel contacts, you no longer can apply pitch control as you would like to, as long as the tailwheel is on the ground, as far as pitch control goes, you're just along for the ride. (Once you realize this, you know that you have the opportunity to devote all of your attention to controlling the direction of the bucking bronco!)
On the other hand, the tricycle retains good pitch control effectiveness no matter what combination of wheels are contacting the ground, so you always have a chance of correcting things. This is one of the reasons that wheel landings can be more smooth, as you are retaining the pitch control longer (down to a lower groundspeed). Wheel landings can have other challenges though, so get training.
I had to check myself out in the Tiger Moth a few weeks back. Wanting to be very gentle with this delightful antique, I was doing my darndest to feather on every landing. Being a Canadian made Moth, it's main wheel position is different that the British ones (to enable ski installation, I've be told). This changes that "arm" again, and not for the favourable. Thus, when I felt the mains just touch so perfectly (not my first landing!), I had that nice feeling. Nope, it was not to be.. just as the tail wheel touched, I hat a small bump, and the Moth was in the air again, I had to land it all over again! Yes, my landings were a little fast, owing to my cautiousness (high final approach) for an engine which had not flown in 7 years.
The whole landing gear arm concept came more clear to me one day, when though not really intending to, I wheel landed the amphibian, as I was not sure that the tailwheel had locked down. Just as the mains touched, I smoothly went full stick forward, and it landed perfectly. This has become my technique for this aircraft now, with pleasing results. The aircraft's designer (now 93) conceded to me that this particular type (Thurston Teal) is more challenging than other tail draggers, as the arm of the mainwheels is so much further forward than common for TD's, because the thrust line from the top pod mounted engine is so high, and you don't want the plane standing on it's nose when you add power - 'makes sense, when you put it all together!
This is still only a part of the story with TD's, make sure you get competent training for the differences it TD's, before you think you have it figured out!