Hello,
Thanks for your kind words, and your mature-sounding understanding. Good point [thank you!]:-
1. In babies, I would say the lens is noticeably more flexible [see (2) as well), although babies less frequently require ophthalmic surgery, so even experienced ophthalmologists would only "feel" a live baby's crystalline lens occasionally [to be honest, I do not know from first-hand experience because I have assisted surgeons only in adults].
2. Oc, the lens has to "thicken" out of necessity during accommodation [to increase converging power [more plus Rx [prescription] to permit near vision [e.g. reading, sewing]] by contraction of the ciliary muscle [which is like a circumferential ring around the lens], and the slackening of the suspensory ligament, so a certain degree of "softness" is essential for its normal function, and accommodative capacity is always greater in children and young adults (around +10 dioptres), whereas in people over 40-450 [depending on distance Rx and other factors], this capacity is drastically reduced [to 1-2 dioptres], causing presbyopia, with a concomitant need for "reading glasses".
M