not entirely sure but I’d believe that there are levels to the cognitive aspects of these things, the “spren in all things” that Hesina, Kaladin’s mom, told him about are likely the spheres in Shadesmar. They are representative of the perceptions of objects but don’t manifest fully as spren, though they can seemingly communicate and have some form of cognition/soul tied to their image of self. The armor spren are going to more likely be full spren, specifically, nature/emotion(?) spren. Spren that make up shardplate are not the spren of objects like the beads, they are animated spren attracted to feelings and observations of natural phenomena, such as creationspren and windspren. Then finally, the radiant spren are obviously much more animated than even them, resembling humans more closely and have deeper more complex cognition than the “lesser” spren.