It is always better to have less cv's, so the top curve would be the cleaner curve. Whether they are EP or CV curves makes no difference. They are just two different ways to actual construct the curve, but result in the same product.

The o.oo1 comes from the tolerances built into Maya. If you look on most of your nurbs tools, you'll see a tolerance setting. This is telling Maya how accurate it needs to be when it is constructing the surface. The lower the tolerance, the closer Maya will get to following the curve or surface, depending on what tool you're using. It is not always a good idea to have it set on 0.001, as Maya will sometimes not be able to execute the surface due to limitations in the software. But none the less, the tolerance setting should always be in your mind when using nurbs.