Smart or lazy - one luthier's approach to inletting braces

[Tim Benware]

I'm a thumbs down -- don't like

Looks like crap! Can you say China?

+!

[Dave Bagwill]

Here's the way I'm thinking about it, from information gathered here in various threads:

-Notching the kerfing for the brace ends is effective if and only if the kerfing actually contacts the brace ends. If it does not make contact, the brace is essentially free to rock and roll anyway.
-Having the braces freed up is a good thing, and is the trend now.
-Braces 'peeling off' is not an issue if the glue joint is good.

So if our reason to notch is as insurance for a bad glue joint, that kerfing needs to really press down on the brace end. If the notches are being used as location markers, then the fit is not as important. It could be that the luthier in the pic above was just using the notches as markers. But it does look weird.

[TonyinNYC]

I do not like it. Not one little bit.