2 relevant facts about the stripes
1) The "stripes" are really only seen if you do what Acuna et. al. did and project map areas near the south pole in a Mercator projection. Looking at standard Mercator projections of Greenland on Earth, you can all understand why this is a bad idea. Using more appropriate projections reduces the stripey effect and makes things much more "blobby"
2) The "stripes" pass UNDER some very large and old craters, dating them back to very early times on Mars, when the crust initially stabilised. There has been nothing since...