As one persons opinion.... T, I would try to go for getting as close to genuine as possible. I would suspect that the people who are willing to spend the money to upgrade their crown to a better quality one - are those of us who are trying to get as close to genuine as possible. I for one, will only be interested in the proper depth crowns - to go with all of the aftermarket CG's. The whole modding experience of Crown and CG go together. And, if that means that we need to also replace the crown tube - we are more likely than not to be willing to ask a modder to do that as well. I certainly am.
One thing that does not seem to have been pointed out yet - is that I have noticed on the 3 T-48 crowns that I have, as well as in these pictures, the crowns are not "flat" across the ridges as you go from inside to outside, where as the genuine crowns are. See the following picture. It is very slight - but I thought that I would point it out. Not a show stopper - but of your production guys can take it into account - why not.