how many hides to use depends on the snake, I have snakes that do just fine with no hides and some that need one. so use your best judgement on that one. the community suggests 1 on each end tho.

if your worried about humidity, cover up your screen top cept the part where the lightbulb is, can use just about anything but since you got a hot light, id use aluminium foil or something that won't melt or burn. bigger water bowl will also help. You can also use a spray bottle to spray water into the cage to up the humidity (usually do this when their shedding)

id take the stick out personally, i dont think the ball python would use it much, i think a shelf type of structure would be more suited for them if you really want to give them vertical room. but its really not needed.

the temp dial is way too high vertically, depend on what you have going on the temp can be 5 degree difference from middle of a glass tank to the bottom. measure temps at the ball python's level for more accuracy. and most of us will tell you the dial kind like that are junk anyways. I suggest a IR temp gun, you can get desent ones pretty cheap nowadays. you can also get a digital with probes.

Now most of the community will not agree with me on the humidity gauges, i say throw the stupid things away and just look at the cage. I mean i just look to see if its high med low or bone dry and adjust. looking at the walls of the cage and the substrate you can tell, heck you can tell by feeling the air when you first open the cage. but most will tell you get a humidity gauge, so don't listen to me lol.