I got a UV-Sphere and wanted to illustrate some ring-shaped features similar to craters on the surface. For that I created the ring object and a lattice, parented them and used a lattice-modifier to then shrink-wrap the lattice modifier to the sphere. I did it like that as I can then use the pivot point to freely rotate and shift the ring object around the surface of the sphere.

My problem here: I've got to many objects on the surface now (~30). I didnt consider that I want to join them afterwards since the sphere is only one of a dozen I want to illustrate like that. Join does not work and breaking the parenting messes up the modifiers. How can I now combine everything on the sphere and the sphere itself to one object?

As mentioned before, I tried to unparent them and to use the "apply transfers". Nothing resulted in the results I am aiming for.