I believe you are right to be so concerned about the material characteristics. It is an awful lot of work to put into something only to look at the finish product and say you don't like the material.

The condition of the swatch is mainly due to it being stuck in my scrap pile for about 3 years. The sample is Iwan Simonis which is on pretty much all the profesionial tables for exactly the same reasons you describe. To a passionate billiards player, what is on their table is more important than what's on them

I think using one of the deeper earth tones would be pretty good look.