Mercator
Conformal: shape survives at every point, and area pays for it, growing as sec squared of latitude - already 91 times over at 84 north.
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What it keeps
Shape. Mercator is conformal: a small circle on the ground stays a circle on the map, anywhere. Turn on the distortion ellipses and every one of them is a circle, without exception. That is not a coincidence, it is the definition.
What it pays
Area, growing as sec squared of latitude. Four times over at 60 north, 10.5 at 72, 91.5 at 84. Greenland looks larger than Africa here and is really about a fourteenth of it. Drag it to the equator and the area reading falls from 16.4 to 1.0. That fall is the size of the lie.