Well if your worried about texturing that part in the first pic, should be a big deal just unwrap it right. If you want to leave out the geometry like the 2nd, the normal map should make it look decent, but not as good. You can always just test it out. If you don't like it just rebake a new normal map. Of course you would have to re-unwrap the UV of that though, since the geometry is different. I'd go with the 1st way though, it shouldnt add much at all to your tri count.