I think most luthiers really like to work with BRW. It's beautiful, smells nice, and does all the stuff it's supposed to do which includes taking and holding bends well. Ideally, the guitar's top and back aren't being used to hold the sides to shape. This adds weird tensions to the top that can change the sound and will change with time as the sides finally give up fighting the top (about 5 yrs later). That's when you have a guitar voiced to sound a certain way, then the side tensions on the top relaxes and it sounds different, probably not for the better.
Here are a couple progress shots of side bending and set up:
Thanks for following along!
Mark