Well, I hate this to be my first post but this topic is something that has bothered me for awhile, and I've seen some cubers that I admire make this mistake. Frictional force has nothing to do with surface area. This is a common misconception among people who equate it to pressure which is the amount of force divided by the surface area. However, static and kinetic frictional forces only depend upon the force applied and the coefficient of friction between the two surfaces.
That being said, I do love my Taiyan cubes and they are among my preferred cubes. But I, like the OP, have noticed that it mostly just makes them feel rougher. The only reason I can really think cube designers put tracks on is to reduce the amount of edge that can catch and cause lock-ups (although the old A-II failed at this miserably).