re: A very pampered dog.

Still, you got those doggies to merge. Maybe call it "dogged determination"?

I hear you on the kerf topic. The only way I've found to fully eliminate the black line is to have a perfect fit and sand away all the char. Kind of like the scroll sawyers have been doing forever without any char to worry about 😀.

I do like the lines when I want the pieces to differentiate. Without kerf compensation, everything fits together soooo much easier and you have wiggle room for working up a panel with lots of pieces.
If I can re-register the panel after assembly, It is neat to be able to retrace (burn) the pattern to clearly define the  edges and if I want thicker lines, easy enough!