I actually cut a hole right in the center of that panel and the padding remained on afterwards.

I had the 10" woofer (custom not JL) and will be installing the 8" system soon so I will write a comparison.

One other thing about the JL box is that it seems to be made of plastic (or is it fiberglass?) and would be lighter than the wood box from BSW. If you look at some of the photos of the JL box in this thread, you will see that it's got curves that anyone would have a hard time producing in a woodworking shop. That thing is amazing.

I have been impressed with 8" subs before and I've heard them get low. I would trust that the pros at BSW know what they're doing when putting the right sub into a small amount of space. At the end of the day it all comes down to how loud/low you want to get.