Today I went on and got to a point where I instantiate each hexagon independently. Such a feature lets me build the game grid not as a sheet of sprites, but as a grid of objects instead. This ultimately leads to the ability to store the grid data (technically, a level) as a 2d array. Even though serializing the latter is not a priority, now it has become a feasible possibility.
The new tile sprite didn't inspire me enough. Next time I'm gonna think it through and replace it with something different. Till then, good night! 🌖