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I'm seeing a lot of variance in the ratios. Some flails have longer handles, some have short. Some have chains as long or longer than the handle, some have almost non-existent chains. What are the advantages and disadvantages of various handle and chain lengths, and is there an "optimal" ratio?
Flails are used for threshing.
Same as nunchakus.
I still don't understand how you arrive at the big heavy ball attached to the handle with a sturdy metal chain. If you're a poor farmer and you don't have anything better than your two little spindly wooden sticks attached by a little hinge in the middle, where do you get a heavy spiky iron ball? And a complicated chain, and how does your threshing flail built only to support the weight of another wooden stick not snap when you use it? And if you had access to a spiky metal ball, couldn't you just attach it to the end of a longer thicker wooden stick and make a standby spear? Or moreover if our had to have some parts made despite your limited means, surely the capacity to have any of the constituent weaponised flail parts made would put you in a position to have something way better forged. It seems like almost anything would make more sense than that. Hell even a big iron club to bash people with at least wouldn't involve trying to deal with a swinging chain.
The type of flail seen in your picture wasn't used by the peasantry but nobility. Some crafty blacksmith probably saw drafted farmers take their threshing flail into battle as improvised weapon and thought about how to properly weaponize the concept. Also we are not talking about two flimsy sticks here. Flails used for threshing had to be sturdy as they needed to last the whole harvest season. They were made from hardwood and I can personally attest, that they are heavy indeed. The things one finds when clearing the grandparents barn ...
As for the practicality of the weaponized flail: it was indeed of dubious use and it is questionable whether it saw widespread military adoption or whether it was the equivalent of "tacticool" gear of the middle ages. An iron club is indeed a more effective weapon and is commenly referred to as mace and if you take a look at a specific type of mace you can probably guess where the idea of the spiky ball came from.