Well you're already above my pay grade because I build pretty close to the pre-war and classical designs, with only minor variations. I'm on my 8th acoustic.....
When I referenced the neck stringer, I'm just thinking that if you love the cherry branch, maybe you can strengthen it with an oak or maple etc stringer?
A little bit of a belly up behind and belly down in front of bridge is considered a good thing by many. The guitars that I have with it are great. I'm sure anything to fortify seam is good. But Taylor went for it without one so you can always go for that and hope for best
.
I think other people with more experience will chime in, possibly, such as printer2 who does lots of cool experimentation.
Sam